Broadband Internet service allows untold amounts of data to be made available instantly around the globe. So it is particularly ironic that detailed and accurate government data on the availability of broadband service is, well, not available.

The broadband availability data currently collected by the Federal Communications Commission is woefully inadequate and often misleading. For example, the FCC says a ZIP code is served by broadband if a one person or business within that ZIP code has broadband service. Think about that. Under that logic a ZIP code could be considered exceptionally wealthy if a rich person or two happen to live there -- even if everyone else there is poor.

Further, the FCC allows service to qualify as broadband at speeds as low as 200 kilobits. Without getting too technical, broadband service that is more than 20 times speedier is available as a basic offering in many other parts of the world today -- often at a fraction of the cost.

The FCC has stubbornly clung to its antique methodology for collecting broadband availability -- often at the urging of broadband companies -- as technology has lept ahead in recent years. So it came as welcome news when we learned last week that a group of leading Senate Democrats were getting behind legislation telling the FCC it has to collect more detailed and meaningful data on broadband availability and share it with the public.

The Broadband Data Improvement Act was introduced by Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. A strong list of co-sponsors includes Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

There is also some positive movement over on the House side, where Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is drafting legislation that would require the federal government to create a comprehensive map of broadband deployment, among other things.

Specifically, Inouye's bill would:

* Direct the FCC to reevaluate its current 200 kilobit broadband standard. It also would require the FCC to create a new metric known as “second generation broadband” to be used to reflect network connections capable of reliably transmitting high-definition video content.

* Direct broadband providers to report broadband availability and second generation broadband connections within 9-digit zip code areas.

* Direct the FCC to conduct inquiries into the deployment of advanced telecommunications services on an annual, rather than periodic, basis.

* Direct the Census Bureau to include a question in its American Community Survey that assesses levels of residential computer use and dial-up versus broadband Internet subscribership.

* Direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to develop broadband metrics that may be used to provide consumers with broadband connection cost and capability information and improve the process of comparing the deployment and penetration of broadband in the United States with other countries.

The legislation would also authorize a 5-year, $40 million per year program that would provide matching grants to state non-profit, public-private partnerships in support of efforts to more accurately identify barriers to broadband adoption throughout the state.

You can read the whole bill by clicking here (PDF). You can also read a Government Accountability Office report on the the FCC's dreadful data collection on broadband by clicking here (PDF). You can read about Markey's draft bill by clicking here.

Consumers would benefit greatly were this kind of useful data were collected by the FCC and made available to the public in an easy-to-understand format, such as an interactive map.

And it shouldn't take an act of Congress for the FCC to do this. The agency should move immediately to collect better data on broadband availability and make that information easily accessible to the public -- regardless of what happens with Sen. Inouye's legislation.

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New Web Pages On Digital Television Transition and XM-Sirius Merger

We have just updated and improved our information on the looming transition to digital television. While the transition isn't scheduled to occur until February 2009, it is already having a substantial impact on consumers.

You can view the digital television transition web page by clicking here.

In addition, we have created a new web page focusing on the proposed merger of the country's only two satellite radio networks, XM and Sirius.

You can view that web page by clicking here.
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New on Now Hear This

Click on the links below to view these items recently posted on “Now Hear This”, our blog:

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