Press Release
Presentation, 'Legislative Update: Broadband Data Improvement Act,'by Drew Clark, Executive Director, BroadbandCensus.com
SAN JOSE, November 6 - Below is the Power Point Presentation made by BroadbandCensus.com at the Federal Communications Commission-National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioner's Joint Summit: Connecting America.
Please note: The bottom of some of the slide are clipped in the presentation below, but all slides are visible by clicking through on the presentation below.
Monday, September 8th, 2008
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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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
'Broadband Census for America' Conference to Focus on Sharing Publicly-Available Broadband Data
Save the Date Announcement
Editor's Note: The agenda for the Broadband Census for America Conference was released on September 8, 2008, and is available at http://broadbandcensus.com/blog/?p=569. Please visit the page for fuller details about the conference program.
WASHINGTON, August 7, 2008 - BroadbandCensus.com, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Texas at Austin's Robert S. Strauss Center, and the Virginia Tech eCorridors Program invite government officials, academic researchers and other key stakeholders to a half-day conference on collecting and sharing public data about high-speed internet access.
The conference, “
Broadband Census for America,” aims to assemble state, local and federal officials engaged in gathering and mapping information about broadband availability, competition, speeds, prices and quality of service. Academic researchers will lend their perspective on the importance of universal broadband data.
Keynote speakers scheduled to address the conference include:
- Eamonn Confrey, First Secretary, Information and Communications Policy, Embassy of Ireland. Mr. Confrey has confirmed as the luncheon speaker on “Mapping out Broadband for Consumers: The Irish Experience.”
- Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey*, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. (*Invited to present opening keynote.)
The conference will also feature two...
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
News
By William G. Korver, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, July 17 – With other panelists calling for comprehensive privacy legislation, NebuAd’s CEO told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Thursday that the internet advertising company would be “satisfied” if an “opt-in” rule became mandatory.
During the a hearing on "What Your Broadband Provider Knows About Your Web Use: Deep Packet Inspection and Communications Laws and Policies," before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., said that most of subcommittee members favored an opt-in approach.
Under an opt-in rule, internet consumers would have to consent before personal information could be shared. Current law more closely replicates an “opt-out” model, with consumers required to affirmatively object to data-sharing by businesses.
Markey said that most Americans do not believe than the implied consent of the opt-out model should be the nation’s privacy standard.
In other words, under Markey’s approach (and that of a majority of the subcommittee), if a consumer did not give explicit consent, NebuAd would not be able to monitor a consumer’s web habits.
NebuAd’s business model gleans information from broadband carriers who are customers of NebuAd without prior consent of either the consumers or the owners of web sites that the internet consumers...
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Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Commentary
The following commentary appears in the current issue of Opastco Advocate, a monthly newsletter published by the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. Reprinted by permission.
By Drew Clark, Executive Director, BroadbandCensus.com
Most Americans who have high-speed Internet can’t imagine life without broadband. How could you connect to the Internet of today without it? In today’s world, broadband is as basic as running water and electricity. And yet the U.S. is falling behind globally. As a technology reporter, I’ve been writing about the battles over broadband and the Internet for nearly a decade in Washington. Yet there is one fact about which nearly everyone seems to be in agreement: if America wants better broadband, America needs better broadband data.
That’s why I’ve recently started a new venture to collect this broadband data, and to make this data freely available for all on the Web, at http://BroadbandCensus.com.
The information and news that is available for free at BroadbandCensus.com is more important now than ever before. The FCC has just made important changes to how it will collect data from carriers. The agency may make even more significant changes in the near future. Public and private sector groups...
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Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
Blog Entries
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
Over at the Communications Workers of America's blog,
Speed Matters, the union claimed credit for the Federal Communications Commission's
recent order requiring broadband companies to provide the FCC with more information, including data about availability by Census tract.
The blog notes:
The CWA Speed Matters campaign can claim another victory – this time at the FCC. As part of our Speed Matters campaign, CWA called on the FCC to increase its definition of "high speed" – a definition that had not changed for nine years -- and to improve its broadband data collection.
Well, it is possible that the FCC's broadband data collection will be improved. But the public is not likely to benefit from any improvements.
The blog post makes no mention of the fact that the FCC will continue to shield the names of the broadband providers that offer service in a particular ZIP code or Census tract. BroadbandCensus.com
criticized the FCC for its failure to change this policy. The current policy limits consumers' and citizens' ability to benefit from local broadband information.
Also, with regards to speeds, the CWA post appears to misstate what the FCC required.
It is correct that,...
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Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
News
William G. Korver, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, June 20 - All Americans, whether they be poor, handicapped, or rural, have the right to universal broadband service, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said on Friday. The congressman also blasted the compromise foreign surveillance legislation that passed Congress on Friday.
Since universal broadband penetration would result in better education and health care in America, Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, strongly supports legislation devoting part of the Universal Service Fund (USF) to establishing nationwide broadband.
Due to the enormous possible benefits of broadband for the average American consumer, policymakers should focus on ensuring that urban, rural, and high-cost areas have access to high-speed internet services. Most of the $7 billion USF currently subsidizes telephone service, and not Internet connections, in rural areas.
Markey played a role in creating the E-Rate program (the “E” stands for education) as a portion of the USF in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, providing funds for connecting schools and libraries ot the Internet.
Just as the E-Rate has helped to “transform education,” Markey said that only by educating America's blue-collar children will the full fruits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other pro-trade...
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Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
News
By Cassandre Durocher, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, June 20 – The community of persons with disabilities has been rallying behind a measure, introduced in Congress on Thursday, that would require companies that make devices or offer communication networks to accommodate persons with disabilities.
The bill, the “Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008,” was introduced by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications the the Internet, and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.
The bill, which is similar to a draft version released last December, would require cellular companies, handset manufacturers and Internet providers to include aids for deaf and blind people using Internet-based telephones, as well as including Internet and voice closed-captioning on video programming over cellular devices, according to the bill, which had not been given a number by Friday.
The bill would also require that the FCC initiate a proceeding to "identify methods to convey emergency information in a manner accessible to individuals who are blind or visually-impaired.” That language is less exacting than the draft version of the bill, which would have had the agency study ways to “identify methods to render on-screen-displayed text” for persons with disabilities.
Television programs have been required to utilitize...
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