Professors Elizabeth Belding and Arpit Gupta honored with Applied Networking Research Prize

Professors Elizabeth Belding and Arpit Gupta published their paper The Efficacy of the Connect America Fund in Addressing US Internet Access Inequities at ACM SIGCOMM'24, and the paper has now been honored with the prestigious Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP) from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF). ANRP is a prestigious and competitive award that selects the top 5-6 papers published across all the popular networking conferences (SIGCOMM, NSDI, CCS, IMC, etc.) in a year.  The papers are selected based on a diverse set of criteria, including scientific merit, relevance to IETF and/or IRTF activities, and the potential of the nominee to have an impact on the community.

The study identified significant gaps in broadband availability and in the quality of information certified by major ISPs to the FCC compared to what is truly offered to end users. It has gained considerable traction both in policy circles and in academia. The paper was also published at Harvard Law Review and was the basis of an amicus curiae brief submitted to the US Supreme Court in relation to an ongoing False Claims Act (FCA) case against Wisconsin Bell, a subsidiary of AT&T, involving alleged fraudulent activity under the E-Rate program.