Monday, November 30th, 2009
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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Monday, July 27th, 2009
By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., July 27, 2009 – The top official at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said Monday that that now is “a new era” for broadband data, including public data about carriers that provide high-speed internet service.
“Whatever the tradition is, this is a new era,” said Strickling, the assistant secretary of commerce, speaking at the Virginia Summit on Broadband Access at the Piedmont Virginia Community College here.
He said that he hoped and expected that carriers will allow information about the areas in which they serve to be made publicly available, as they do in Canada, he said. (Carriers on Ireland’s national broadband map also allow themselves and their service areas to be identified.)
Strickling also said that broadband incumbents that seek to challenge broadband applicants who argue that their areas are “underserved” will have to make such information public – and in the same format as the broadband data collection efforts underway nationwide.
“We need the data: I think it is a national imperative in which this data be collected,” said Strickling, responding to a question about whether carriers will in fact provide states with the information necessary to create state-level broadband maps.
“I think it is a...
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