Welcome to BroadbandCensus.com

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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By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, September 11, 2009 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration late Wednesday released the names of all 2,200 applicants for broadband stimulus grants through an interactive and searchable database at the broadbandusa.gov web portal during the first round of the broadband stimulus applications. In testimony to Congress on Thursday, Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary of NTIA, said that the agency was likely to seek to consolidate the planned rounds two and three of the broadband grant process into a single additional round. The broadband stimulus program is being run by the NTIA and the Rural Utilities Service of the the Agriculture Department. Also, late Wednesday the NTIA released the names of the entities within all 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia that had been awarded broadband data and mapping grants. Previously, there had been some question about whether all states would indeed submit applications for broadband data. “We are pleased with the unanimous response, which underscores the value of this program,” Strickling said in a statement, speaking about the broadband data grants. The data grants totaled $100 million, or significantly less than the $240 million that had been designated for the program by the NTIA. The...

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By Drew Clark, Editor and Executive Director, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2009 - Over at O'Reilly's Radar, Carl Malamud discusses the need for a crowdsourced national communiations census, or a broadband census. He writes:

My last tour of duty in DC was Chief Technology Officer at the Center for American Progress. One of the fun things I got to do was figure out what everybody else did, including my fellow Senior Fellows, the folks that generated most of the policy work, many of whom are now occupying senior posts in the new administration.

One of the most fascinating was Mark Lloyd. An experienced Emmy-winning television producer, communications lawyer, and community activist, Mark is the author of a well-regarded book aboutcommunications and democracy and numerous columns. He's currently at the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights.

The project Mark Lloyd was working on was a National Broadband Map to show our true communications capabilities. And, he wanted to crowd-source the map from community groups, supplementing that with census and other data from several different places to create a big mash-up. This was in 2005, around the same time Adrian Holovaty was thinking about chicagocrime.org.

Here's my reply on the O'Reilly...

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Sold-Out Crowd at May 12 Broadband Breakfast Club Prompted Move to New Venue, at Clyde's of Gallery Place, for Discussion on 'How Should 'Unserved' and 'Underserved' Areas Best Be Defined?'

Press Release

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2009 - Unprecedented demand to attend the Broadband Breakfast Club has caused BroadbandCensus.com to relocate the event, beginning at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, May 12, to Clyde's of Gallery Place. Rep. Rick Boucher, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee, will speak at the event. Boucher, who leads Congressional efforts to define and supervise the nation's broadband policy - and its communication strategy for rural America - will lead off the discussion at the Broadband Breakfast Club with a speech at the Old Ebbitt Grill. The topic of the May 12 meeting is "How Should 'Unserved' and 'Underserved' Areas Best Be Defined?" Registration for the breakfast event is available here. Breakfast is available beginning at 8 a.m.; the program will begin shortly after 8:30 a.m. Clyde's of Gallery Place is located at 707 7th Street NW, Washington, DC. The event will take place in the Piedmont Room upstairs. Other speakers at the May Broadband Breakfast Club, the second in a series on "Spending the Broadband Stimulus,"...

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Chairman Boucher Will Speak at May 12 Broadband Breakfast Club, on 'How Should 'Unserved' and 'Underserved' Areas Best Be Defined?'

Press Release

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2009 - BroadbandCensus.com announced that Rep. Rick Boucher, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee, will speak at the Broadband Breakfast Club on Tuesday, May 12, 2009. Boucher, who leads Congressional efforts to define and supervise the nation's broadband policy - and its communication strategy for rural America - will lead off the discussion at the Broadband Breakfast Club with a speech at the Old Ebbitt Grill. The topic of the May 12 meeting is "How Should 'Unserved' and 'Underserved' Areas Best Be Defined?" Registration for the breakfast event is available here. A full American + Continental Breakfast is available beginning at 8 a.m.; the program will begin shortly after 8:30 a.m. Other speakers at the May Broadband Breakfast Club, the second in a series on "Spending the Broadband Stimulus," will consider one of the leading definition questions that remains to be defined by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service: who is served by broadband, and who isn't. Other confirmed speakers include:

• Randolph J. May,...

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News

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, January 27, 2009 - Search giant Google is preparing to enter the market for free broadband speed tests, through a collaboration with the university research consortium PlanetLab, and the New America Foundation. Google is set to announce the collaboration on Wednesday, at an event at the New America Foundation in Washington, and keynoted by Vint Cerf, vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. Google follows BroadbandCensus.com, which launched in January 2008, in providing a free internet speed tests to consumers. BroadbandCensus.com’s speed test allows internet uses to test actual speeds and compare them to the speeds that are promised by their internet providers. Google and the other participants in the research consortium will be using the same speed test – the Network Diagnostic Tool of Internet2 – that was deployed by BroadbandCensus.com beginning in February 2008. As with BroadbandCensus.com, Google apparently seeks to make the data publicly available, as a means of providing transparency into the operations of internet providers. “Transparency has always been an essential component of the Internet's success,” reads the press release announcing Wednesday’s event. “To remedy today's information gap, researchers need resources to develop new analytical tools.” “At this event, speakers will discuss the importance of advancing...

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News

By Drew Bennett, Special Correspondent, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, October 7 – Congress last week passed legislation, the “Broadband Data Improvement Act,” that seeks better information about high-speed internet connections through enhanced data collection by five separate government agencies. But as passed by the Senate and the House, S. 1492 deleted all authorization of funds – an amount that had totaled $40 million for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012 in the Senate Commerce Committee version of the legislation. Although S. 1492 was agreed to by the House, the bill undercut many of the key features of a companion House bill, the “Broadband Census of America Act,” H.R. 3919. H.R. 3919 passed the House in November 2007. It would have forced the disclosure of company-by-company broadband data. It also would have created a national broadband map under the aegis of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, with details on broadband coverage by every broadband provider at the nine-digit ZIP code level. Both features are absent in the final bill. The Senate finally passed S. 1492 on Friday, September 26 – the same day that many state officials and academics gathered in Washington at the “Broadband Census for America Conference” sponsored by BroadbandCensus.com, Carnegie Mellon...

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Key Academics, State Officials and Broadband Data Collectors to Speak

Embassy of Ireland to Give Luncheon Keynote Address on Publicly-Available Broadband Data

Coverage of the Broadband Census for America Conference

• Broadband Census for America Conference Web Site
• Tvol's Flickr photostream of the Broadband Census for America Conference
• "Propriety Data Cited as Challenge for Broadband Mapping," by Lynn Stanton, TR Reports
• "Regulators, Officials Debate Need for National Broadband Policy, Fund," by Carrie DeLeon, TR Reports
• "Service Providers Should Report Better Metrics, Panelists Say," by Scott Sleek, Broadband Advisory Services, Pike & Fischer
• "U.S. Copes with Broadband Statistics Void," IP Democracy
• "Guessing at data," Susan Crawford's blog
• "Experts call for broadband transparency,"by Maya Prabhu, ESchool News
• American Library Association District Dispatch

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, September 8, 2008 – Many of the nation’s foremost broadband policy-makers and experts will analyze and discuss best practices for improving the collection and sharing of public data about high-speed internet access at the Broadband Census for America Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 26, 2008. Panelists at the half-day conference include Rachelle Chong, California Public Utility Commissioner; broadband data pioneer Professor Kenneth Flamm...

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