Monday, October 12th, 2009
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, October 12, 2009 - Carl Weinschenck, writing in
IT Business Edge, speaks about "Broadband Mapping: Treasure for a New Age." Carl discusses the rash of interest in broadband data and mapping since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, in February 2009, and highlights the work of several data companies. Among the companies highlighted are Ridgeview Telecom, Connected Nation, and BroadbandCensus.com.
Here's an excerpt of what he writes:
Critics are not shy about saying that something untoward is going on. Vince Jordan, the president and CEO of broadband engineering, construction and management firm RidgeviewTel, says that Connected Nation isn’t doing a thorough job. “These guys basically are taking whatever the telco and cable guys feed them and regurgitate it, and say that’s where the coverage is,” he says.
Data that is given by carriers to the broadband mapping companies is protected under non-disclosure agreements. Thus, actual cases in which speeds are overstated are impossible to identify. But appearances are vital. Drew Clark, the editor and executive director of BroadbandCensus, a news and commercial data services organization, says he believes that the telecommunications carriers shouldn’t...
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Saturday, March 14th, 2009
News
By Ken Austin, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, March 14, 2009 – More than 120 people from across North Carolina convened last Saturday here for a “town hall”-style meeting, by
InternetforEveryone.org, seeking to raise the profile about the importance of broadband in the lives of everyday citizens.
The take-home message of the March 7 meeting came from the keynote presentation by Rev. William Barber, a practicing pastor and president of the North Carolina chapter of NAACP: “If we are not logged-in then we are locked-out.”
Barber put the town hall theme in context, offering a unique perspective that recalled 200 years of U.S. communication regulatory policy – or 100 more years than are commonly cited by policy analysts.
His message also applies to other community in America that are unserved or underserved by high-speed internet access.
The Durham meeting was the second in a series of such events across the country organized by InternetforEveryone.org, a non-profit coalition led by the advocacy organization Free Press. The first event was in Los Angeles in December.
InternetforEveryone.org, which is also supported by the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Electronics Association, Facebook, Google, Intuit, and a series of non-profit groups, seeks to inject...
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Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Broadband Census Arizona
By Drew Bennett, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com; and William G. Korver, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
This is the 16th of a series of articles surveying the state of broadband, and broadband data, within each of the United States and its territories.
October 15 – “Reliable, affordable access to high-capacity telecommunications infrastructure has become as essential as water, sewer, transportation and electricity service in creating healthy and successful communities in the 21st century.”
So begins a 2007 report by the Arizona Department of Commerce, the “Arizona Broadband Initiative Framework.”
The report concludes: “the opportunity for states to use ubiquitous broadband deployment as a competitive differentiator is quickly passing.” Further, “the realization of broadband connectivity in parts of rural Arizona will not be accomplished by relying on normal market forces alone.” In sum, the report urges government officials and others to expand and enhance broadband networks in the southwestern state.
Arizona is now setting off on a path that a handful of other U.S. states are already on. Officials in the Grand Canyon State sought to learn what other states have done to expand broadband services beyond those provided by market forces.
The Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council (ATIC) is tasked with coordinating state, as well as public/private projects,...
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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
News
Editor’s Note: The following story was published in TR Daily on September 26, 2008, and is reprinted with the permission of Telecommunications Reports International, Inc. Notwithstanding the fact that content on the BroadbandCensus.com web site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License, this article is and remains Copyright 2008 Telecommunications Reports International, Inc.
By Carrie DeLeon, Telecommunications Reports
A national broadband infrastructure fund should include the involvement of state regulators and focus not only on the extension of broadband service into unserved areas, but also on the adoption rate of broadband service by consumers, according to California Public Utilities Commissioner Rachelle Chong.
During a keynote address this morning at the Broadband Census for America Conference in Washington, Commissioner Chong advocated for the implementation of a national broadband infrastructure fund, and suggested that the Universal Service Fund be reformed to shift the focus from traditional wireline to advanced services.
“More assertive national leadership on broadband policy is not only necessary, but critical,” Commissioner Chong said.
In addition, the former FCC regulator said that while some states, including California, have been successful in their efforts to map broadband data, a national mapping of broadband data could be helpful to states by enabling them to compare their...
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