Monday, November 9th, 2009
By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, November 9, 2009 - On Friday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced seven new state recipients of the state broadband data and development grant program. These grants fund state efforts to map broadband availability and speeds. Each state was asked to pick a designated entity – either a state body or a non-profit organization – that would develop a plan for how broadband mapping would be conducted.
Of the seven states awarded grants on Friday, two choose to fully internalize their process and have state agencies control the mapping.
In Alabama, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs was tasked; they received $1.4 million for broadband data collection and mapping activities and $463,000 for broadband planning activities both for over a two- year period.
In Washington State, the Department of Information Services received $1.7 million for data collection and mapping and almost $500,000 for broadband planning activities both for over a two-year period.
Wyoming and Idaho, by contrast, choose to contract their mapping to the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, a Seattle based non-profit. Wyoming received $1.3 million for data collection and mapping over a two-year period and $500,000 for broadband planning activities...
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009
By Ryan Womack, Reporter-Researcher, BroadbandCensus.com
July 30, 2009 – Broadband advisors to Washington state’s governor have issued a request for proposals on the state’s broadband mapping project.
The Broadband Advisory Council said applicants should have an experienced track record, proven technology and a business model that addresses proven demand.
Under rules overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, each state can choose only one grantee to construct its broadband coverage map.
Washington State has issued five recommendations for data applicants: Encourage public-private partnering in the development of grant applications; support proposals increasing funding for anchor institutions; support proposals that target unserved and underserved areas; leverage advances in science, healthcare, smart grid and energy efficiency, innovation in education and improved transportation infrastructure; and encourage proposals increasing access and adoption.
The council says it is hoping that Gov. Christine Gregoire will sign into effect policy enabling the Washington State Department of Information Services to proceed with mapping efforts immediately, in oversight of the statewide project.
The notice of funds availability for the Broadband Data Information Act was released July 1 and applications became available July 14. The council recommends that applicants partner and ensure their proposals are received no later than Aug....
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Friday, August 15th, 2008
Blog Entries
By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com
August 15 - The Communications Workers of America's
Speed Matters blog this week published its state-by-state report on download speeds in the United States.
According to the report, the median download speed for the nation was 2.3 Megabits per second (Mbps), which it compared to median download speeds in Japan (63 Mbps), South Korea (49 Mbps), Finland (21 Mbps), France (17 Mbps) and Canada (7.6 Mbps). The median upload speed for the United States was 425 Kilobits per second (Kbps), which the report notes is "far too slow for patient monitoring or to transmit large files such as medical records."
The CWA report was prepared based upon 229,000 tests in the United States from May 2007 to May 2008 - a truly impressive total.
BroadbandCensus.com is also taking speed tests as part our effort to map out broadband availability, competition, speeds, prices and service quality. While we have collected thousand of speed test results since we launched our web site in January 2008, we are still far short of the numbers of
Speed Matters.
The new Speed Matters total tests compares with 80,000 speed tests taken from September 2006 to May 2007 and used in...
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Friday, July 11th, 2008
News
By William G. Korver, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com
WASHINGTON, July 10 – The lack of a cohesive national broadband policy in the United States is hampering the nation’s ability to deploy high-speed broadband, attorney James Baller said Thursday at the Alliance for Community Media conference here.
Nations in Europe and Asia our "cleaning our clock" on broadband deployment, competition, speeds and prices, said Baller, of the Baller Herbst law firm.
Baller, who represents municipalities seeking to deploy broadband systems, recently authored a 100-page report, “
Broadband Revolution: Developing a National Broadband Strategy to Keep the U.S. Prosperous in the 21st Century,” which was released by the e-NC Authority of North Carolina.
Among the report’s key findings, which Baller highlighted again at the ACM conference:
- Hong Kong (with Singapore soon to join them) boasts a 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) broadband system. Japan averages 93.7 Megabits per second (Mbps), the U.S. languishes at 14th place with an average of 8.9 Mbps.
- In broadband prices, the U.S. stands at 11th place with a monthly average of $12.60, more than four-times the $3.09 average cost in Japan.