Senate Guts Broadband Data Bill

from the not-so-special-after-all dept

You may have heard recently about the new Broadband Data Improvement Act, passing through Congress, as it basically put into law what the FCC had already decided: the cutoff for what should be considered broadband needed to be raised, and the data collection methods for broadband penetration needed to be updated, from the clearly bogus methodology it currently uses.

Sounds good, right?

Except, as Broadband Reports lets us know, in moving from the House to the Senate, some Senators took the opportunity to gut the bill of most of its important parts. That is, it took away all funding for the FCC to actually measure broadband penetration in the US and took away the mandate to create a broadband penetration mapping solution. In other words, the Broadband Data Improvement Act has removed the ability for the FCC to improve broadband data.

Now, you could argue that the FCC shouldn't be wasting money on measuring this sort of stuff, but if you happen to believe that broadband is critical infrastructure these days, and an enabler of many other industries that drive economic growth, you can make a reasonable argument for why the government should have accurate data on broadband penetration, to make sure that we're not falling too far behind other countries.

Filed Under: broadband, broadband penetration, data collection, fcc
Companies: fcc

Has Broadband Growth Stalled In The US?

from the reaching-saturation? dept

A new survey on broadband adoption in the US suggests that broadband adoption in the US may be leveling off, or stalling out completely as the numbers aren't all that different than they were at the end of 2007 (55% have broadband now, compared to 54% in December). Of course, there are a variety of different groups out there trying to measure broadband penetration in the US, and they all seem to turn up different numbers -- so these numbers shouldn't necessarily be taken as fact. The report suggests the economic situation may have something to do with it, though there appears to be a variety of reasons that factored into the decision of many not to sign up for broadband.

Filed Under: broadband, broadband penetration, us

FCC Finally Admits Its Broadband Penetration Numbers Are 'Stunningly Meaningless'

from the after-releasing-its-latest-report dept

For years, the FCC has been publishing numbers about broadband penetration in the US that were clearly bogus. They considered anything above 200kbps as broadband and did zip-code level comparisons. Thus, if one house in a zip code had access to broadband from a certain provider, the FCC assumed that every house in that zip code had access to broadband. As someone who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley and could not get DSL above 128k until a few months ago, I can point out how inaccurate that claim is. DSL is such a local technology that judging it on a zip-code-wide system is bound to be woefully inaccurate, even in heavily populated areas. Despite having the government condemn these bogus stats over and over again, the FCC kept releasing them... and it's done so again (pdf).

However, the good news is that it's finally admitting that its own numbers are bogus and changing the way it calculates broadband penetration. Why they're doing so right after releasing the latest report makes little sense -- but the FCC isn't known as being the most logically run organizations. In fact, it's so ridiculous to release bogus numbers after admitting that they're bogus, that two of the FCC's commissioners voted against releasing the report at all, with one calling it "stunningly meaningless."

The new methodology will consider 768kbps the cutoff for considering a connection as "broadband." It will also look at both up and downstream speeds, rather than just downstream. Finally, and most importantly, it will stop using the zip code system for determining penetration, but will require ISPs to report subscribers at the census-block level, which is much more fine-grained. This would present a much more accurate picture, so expect to hear ISPs complaining about the new methodology in 3... 2... 1....

Filed Under: broadband, broadband penetration, fcc
Companies: fcc

FCC Releases Its Bogus Broadband Data Once Again

from the must-be-that-time-of-year dept

By this point, everyone knows that the FCC's data on broadband penetration in the US is totally bogus. Early in 2006, a GAO report slammed the FCC for using such bogus data. It uses a very low hurdle for what counts as "broadband" and then measures broadband based on zipcodes only. So if one broadband provider provides 200kbps service to a single house in that zipcode, the FCC considers broadband to be available to everyone in that zipcode. That, of course, is ridiculous -- as even right here in the heart of Silicon Valley it's difficult for some people to get broadband. When the FCC did little to respond, the GAO came out with a second report slamming the FCC again. When the FCC still did nothing, Congress got into the act, pushing forward a bill that would require the FCC to more accurately count broadband penetration. How did the FCC respond? By writing an editorial insisting that there's competition... even if it doesn't have any numbers to back it up.

With all that as background, it should come as no surprise whatsoever that the latest FCC report on broadband penetration appears to use the same bogus methodology. It makes you wonder who they think they're fooling. With such a pointless methodology the results are pretty meaningless. After all, it suggests that 80% of zipcodes have at least four broadband service providers. Those who want to say that there's strong competition in broadband will falsely assume this means 80% of households have four providers to choose from, but it would probably be pretty difficult to find very many people who have four different providers available. There is one amusing point in the report. The FCC used to insist that after handing over monopolies to incumbents, new broadband options would come from other technologies, with broadband over powerlines being the "great hope" for broadband competition despite years and years of failed trials. It seems the FCC isn't talking much about broadband over powerlines any more... perhaps because its own report shows fewer subscribers than at the beginning of the year. So much for that plan.

Filed Under: bogus data, broadband, broadband penetration, fcc