Background

Jason Shevik is the Senior Industry Analyst at BroadbandNow, where he harnesses one of the industry’s largest broadband datasets to uncover and measure trends in internet competition, pricing, infrastructure and policy. Trained as a mathematician, Jason approaches broadband questions quantitatively, working in Python, R, and SQL and applying tools that range from established market-concentration measures like the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to artificial intelligence and graph theory.

His research spans the industry’s biggest questions. Jason co-authored BroadbandNow’s county-level analysis of ISP market concentration, which examined all 3,143 U.S. counties using 87.6 million speed tests and found that over 96% lack meaningful competition for high-speed broadband. He authors the annual Best and Worst States for Broadband rankings, and co-authored the Broadband Pricing Changes: 2016 to 2022 study tracking how internet prices evolved over six years. In 2022, he led BroadbandNow’s analysis of internet access and quality in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, measuring the war’s impact on connectivity city by city using live speed test data.

Jason’s work travels: the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society has featured his state-by-state broadband research, Verizon’s public policy team has formally cited his pricing study, and he has been quoted as an industry expert on the wartime deterioration of Ukraine’s internet infrastructure. Much of BroadbandNow’s research that reaches national newsrooms and policymakers is built on analysis Jason conducts behind the scenes.

His path to broadband research is unusual: John Busby, who directs BroadbandNow’s research, recruited Jason specifically for his background in collegiate policy debate, an activity built on rapid, rigorous research and argumentation across a huge range of topics. That training, combined with his mathematics degree, shapes how Jason works: follow the data, stress-test the argument, and publish only what survives.

Professional Background & Education

Jason earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where his senior capstone involved implementing and evaluating a proposed quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithm. Outside the classroom, he competed on the university’s policy debate team, earning awards in an activity that demands fast, rigorous research and airtight argumentation across an enormous range of subjects, the exact skill set that later brought him to broadband research.

After graduation, Jason worked as a data management specialist at Daikin Applied Americas, where he built automated data-accuracy checks and resolved database integrity issues, before joining BroadbandNow’s research team in 2022, where his mathematical training and debate-honed research instincts converged into his current role analyzing the American broadband market.

Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.

Previously Published

Jason’s research examines broadband competition, pricing and access (in the U.S. and beyond):

Personal

Jason grew up in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, a tiny rural town on the Wisconsin border, an upbringing that gives him firsthand perspective on the rural connectivity gaps his research measures. He now lives in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. His curiosity carries well past broadband: he has contributed to a medical machine-learning project predicting protein coronas on nanoparticles, and in his spare time he’s building a chess position encoder using self-supervised graph machine learning. An avid chess player (he favors the Smith-Morra Gambit and the Fried Liver Attack), Jason also serves as the dungeon master for his Dungeons & Dragons group.