Reports from the Federal Communications Commissions regarding broadband availability throughout the country aren’t well respected for their ability to assess Internet infrastructure penetration in the United States, particularly in more rural areas. There’s a bill in the Senate from Daniel Inouye of Hawaii that’s currently being debated that would push the Federal Communications Commission into better data gathering and reporting. A similar bill in the House from Markey of Massachusetts recently passed, with a provision for a country-wide searchable map.
Both bills focus on gathering better facts in order to assess this deregulated industry. The assumption is that the United States continues to fall behind other developed nations regarding high speed connections. Areas of Asia and Europe are said to have connections that are 20 times faster at half the cost.
The current regulations only requires broadband suppliers to provide the number of subscribers at the Zip Code level. New maps with greater accuracy are being touted in order for a national searchable map of broadband availability.
Read more on this topic in eWeek.
