Welcome to BroadbandCensus.com

By the Staff of BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2010 – The FCC launched its consumer broadband test today, enabling consumers to test the speed and other performance measurements of their broadband connections. Users will randomly be assigned to one of two speed and measurement tests when they visit www.broadband.gov. One of the tests will utilize the open source Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) developed by Internet2, a consortium of researchers. BroadbandCensus.com has been using the NDT speed test since February 2008. The other test, uses Ookla, Inc.'s Speedtest.net, has been used by Communications Workers of America's SpeedMatters.org web site since 2007. “Transparency empowers consumers, promotes innovation and investment, and encourages competition,” said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. “The FCC’s new digital tools will arm users with real-time information about their broadband connection and the agency with useful data about service across the country," he said. "By informing consumers about their broadband service quality, these tools help eliminate confusion and make the market work more effectively.” The FCC also said that it did not endorse any specific testing application. In addition to the "Consumer Broadband Test," the FCC on Thursday also launched a mobile application -- a first for the agency...

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SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, and WASHINGTON, February 25, 2010 – Connect Illinois, a non-profit organization that includes partnerships with Southern Illinois University, Man-Tra-Con, and Connected Nation, on Thursday announced Drew Clark as its new Executive Director. On Wednesday, the group also unveiled BroadbandStat, a new interactive mapping tool for viewing and analyzing broadband data. Clark, the founder of BroadbandCensus.com and an experienced, independent telecom industry analyst, brings a unique public interest perspective to broadband data collection, which is vital to the effective deployment of high-speed internet networks throughout the United States. “I’m glad that our team of broadband experts is moving forward to help achieve the ambitious vision for a public, transparent map of technology infrastructure that President Obama and I share,” said Governor Pat Quinn. A long-time advocate of improving broadband access in Illinois, Governor Quinn has worked with public and private partners over many years to ensure connectivity in all areas. As the state’s designated entity to perform broadband mapping, Connect Illinois recently received $1.8 million in funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for broadband data collection, mapping and planning activities. In 2009, led by Southern Illinois University, Connect Illinois received a start-up grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic...

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By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, January 21, 2010 - Today's edition of The New York Times includes a story about internet speed tests, including BroadbandCensus.com, and the various features that each of the major providers takes in offering speed tests. The piece, "How Fast is Your Web Connection?" by Peter Wayner, includes ISPGeeks.com, Toast.net, VisualWare, Pingtest.net, and DSLReports.com, along with BroadbandCensus.com. The article discusses what BroadbandCensus.com aims to achieve in allowing users to "crowdsource" and share data about their internet connections:

Some users are also setting up Web sites to share test results so others can see the general performance of an Internet service provider. DSLReports.com and BroadbandCensus.com, for instance, both offer tests and collect their results to produce reports to help consumers decide whether problems are sporadic or part of a larger pattern.

Among the speed tests mentioned in the article, BroadbandCensus.com is the only one that uses the open source Network Diagnostic Tool of Internet2. If you'd like to participate in the Broadband Census, and take the BroadbandCensus.com speed test, click...

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By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, December 31, 2009 – The Commerce Department agency responsible for the mapping component of the broadband stimulus program announced, on the last day of the year, that it had funded five more states’ broadband data programs. With the announcement – of funding for broadband data and mapping in Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah and the U.S. Virgin Islands – the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded 41 grants totaling $78 million. There remain 15 awards still to be made – rounding out the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories that submitted applications and are eligible for grant funding. The agency said that it planned to make those awards early in 2010. NTIA has been relatively parsimonious in its approach to funding broadband data-collection efforts. Although the “Notice of Funds Availability” released on July 1, 2009, said that the agency would accept applications for funding of up to $3.9 million per state, plus $500,000 for “broadband planning activities,” in practice the NTIA has cut that amount by more than half. The average award has been $1.9 million. Up to $350 million of the $7.2 billion allocated for broadband-related activities by the American Recovery and Reinvestment...

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By Drew Clark, Executive Director, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, December 14, 2009 - Broadband Census Data announced the availability of highly granular Census block mapping services to state recipients of broadband mapping grants. BroadbandCensus.com provides the information necessary for states to meet grant obligations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It does this by identifying:

• carriers;
• internet technologies;
• advertised speeds;
• prices; and
• the presence or absence of broadband within each Census block.

Using BroadbandCensus.com, a state can fully map the broadband footprint of its carriers within 42 days, for a fraction of the budget allocated by the Recovery Act. And the cost is less than what a state might otherwise expect for a product of this caliber. BroadbandCensus.com builds its broadband maps by blending multiple data sets of publicly-available information. These sources include:

• Wireline footprints;
• Radio-frequency engineering maps;
• Publicly-available carrier data;
• Survey-grade research; and
• Crowdsourced data.

The data underlying BroadbandCensus.com is verifiable, publicly available, and granular to the Census block level. BroadbandCensus.com can also go beyond the Census block level and offer consumer broadband data at the rooftop level. This survey-grade information is no more than six months old. Unlike compiled consumer data built for direct marketing, the BroadbandCensus.com suite of services makes use of active household demographic data. Working in collaboration with Brian Webster Consulting, Broadband Census Data...

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WASHINGTON, December 7, 2009 - A new report using an innovative approach to broadband data finds that the percentage of households in the United States that have adopted high-speed internet services is 72.9 percent. The report was generated by comparing the Census blocks in which broadband is available with the number of subscribers that carriers report to the Federal Communications Commission. By linking the number of subscribers in a particular state (from FCC data) to a data-set of Census block-by-Census block tabulations of broadband availability, consultant Brian Webster believes that he is able to peg the nation-wide broadband adoption rate for homes passed at 72.9 percent. That number is about 10 percentage points higher than what other studies have found. That's not surprising - precisely because he is attempting to count adoption of homes passed, and not of the population as a whole. “That’s a difference that could have a significant impact on the decisions made to deploy broadband in the remaining un-served markets,” says Webster. One other facet to the data used in the report: the FCC data used in the report also includes mobile broadband counts, in addition to wireline broadband counts. Because a home could have two or more broadband...

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By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 30, 2009 - The news that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration aims to seek access to the Form 477 database is positive news -- providing that the public obtains access to the database, too. Even before the founding of BroadbandCensus.com more than two years ago, the individuals associated with the data side of BroadbandCensus.com have been urging the public disclosure of basic broadband data. We call this the Broadband SPARC: for Speeds, Prices, Availability, Reliability and Competition. In comments in July 2008, BroadbandCensus.com urged greater disclosure of this data. We repeated these comments, adding a new twist - that a National Broadband Plan must be accompanied by a National Broadband Mashup - in June 2009. As readers of BroadbandBreakfast.com are aware, Broadband Census LLC has recently split our operations between our news and events, which we publish on BroadbandBreakfast.com, and our data operations, which continues on BroadbandCensus.com. BroadbandBreakfast.com continues our tradition of reliable news reporting, as BroadbandCensus.com continues to urge disclosure and - through our mapping from publicly-available sources - create the best possible database of broadband speeds, prices, availability, reliability and competition. The news of the NTIA's interest in the Form 477...

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By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2009 - Today, Broadband Census News launches BroadbandBreakfast.com, a new daily web site with definitive and independent news on broadband stimulus funding, wireless internet, and the national broadband plan. This new domain, BroadbandBreakfast.com, will be used for the journalistic operations of Broadband Census News LLC -- our company's news subsidiary -- and will cover broadband technology and internet policy. Our reporters are passionate about broadband, and we aim to maintain our focus on core issues of broadband technology and internet policy. Meanwhile, the web site BroadbandCensus.com has been relaunched for the purposes of Broadband Census Data LLC: ensuring that the public has free and transparent access to basic and granular broadband information about broadband Speeds, Prices, Availability, Reliability and Competition.

Going Forward with Broadband News AND Data

In previous entries in this series of five blog posts, I’ve highlighted the history of BroadbandCensus.com. We've been leading the charge for public and transparent broadband data for more than three years. In that time, much has changed about the opportunity that we face, and our country faces, in bringing better broadband data to consumers, and to policy-makers. I’ve highlighted the history of BroadbandCensus.com's efforts...

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