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Tyler Cooper
Editor-in-Chief
Tyler Cooper is the Editor-in-Chief at BroadbandNow, where he directs national coverage of telecom policy and leads independent research on the digital divide. A former network and AV system designer with more than a decade in the telecom industry, he has been writing about broadband since 2015, and his work has been cited by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and in the Oxford journal International Affairs.
Tyler leads BroadbandNow Research’s independent audits of federal broadband data, including the landmark study that manually verified more than 110,000 address-provider combinations and found that 42 million Americans lacked access to broadband — nearly double the FCC’s estimate at the time. That research was cited by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in its 2022 report to Congress calling for a national broadband strategy, and helped drive the national shift toward location-level broadband mapping. His original reporting has also entered the academic record: Tyler’s investigation into Big Tech’s ownership of the internet backbone — which found Google owns or co-owns tens of thousands of miles of submarine cable — was cited in the Oxford journal International Affairs in research on “virtual sovereignty” and private infrastructural power.
Broadband data only matters if it reflects what people can actually access. Our job is to look past the headline numbers and make the real picture easier to understand.”
Tyler Cooper sitting down with Dr. Kiesha King, Head of U.S. Education at T-Mobile about the company’s $10.7 billion investment in closing the digital divide.
Tyler appearing on the Amphenol Broadband Solutions podcast “Wavelengths” with host Daniel Litwin to discuss the landscape of broadband deployment and access.
Tyler is an active speaker at industry conferences and events, such as the National Digital Inclusion Alliance’s Net Inclusion 2020 conference, NPR’s “In Conversation,” Broadband Breakfast’s “Broadband Breakfast Live Online,” and the Broadband Measurement Summit in Washington, D.C., where he spoke in 2024. He has been writing about broadband issues like the digital divide, net neutrality, cybersecurity and internet access since 2015, and is the creator and host of The BroadbandNow Podcast, where he has interviewed policy leaders on BEAD implementation, telehealth, and broadband adoption.
Tyler’s work is internationally recognized; he has been published on sites like VentureBeat, TechRadar, Digital Trends, and The Next Web. He has also been featured in VICE and Fox News. He also works alongside PCMag’s Eric Griffith on the publication’s annual Best Internet Service Providers rankings.
Professional Background
Before turning to journalism full-time, Tyler was a System Designer at HomePro, Inc., where he designed, implemented and maintained enterprise-grade network architecture, automation solutions and home theater technology for custom home builders across the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. That hands-on experience with the physical infrastructure of connectivity grounds his policy analysis and product reviews in technical reality. He began writing professionally in 2015, working as a staff reporter and freelance journalist covering consumer products, services and technology before joining BroadbandNow.
2018-Present
Editor-in-Chief, Broadbandnow
Directs national coverage of telecom policy and leads BroadbandNow Research’s independent audits and studies, including the FCC availability audit cited by the U.S. GAO.
2015 – 2018
Staff Reporter & Freelance Journalist
Consumer technology reporting and product reviews at HighYa and as an independent journalist, covering broadband, cybersecurity and the digital divide.
2014 – 2016
System Designer, HomePro, Inc. — Dallas/Fort Worth
Designed and implemented enterprise-grade network architecture, automation systems and home theater technology for custom home builders across the DFW Metroplex.
Education
M.A. in JournalismUniversity of Sydney
B.A. in Journalism and Mass CommunicationUniversity of Sydney
Beyond Broadband
Tyler is a multi-instrumentalist and hobbyist composer; he spends most of his time outside of work on music. A Dallas/Fort Worth native, his 2019 study of the digital divide mapped the connectivity gaps in his own backyard.
