Data Mapping Takes Center Stage in Broadband Policy

From BroadbandCensus.com Weekly Report

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2009 – Reading through the Federal Communications Commission’s 90-page report, “Bringing Broadband to Rural America,” it is clear that questions of broadband data loom large over the pending national broadband strategy.

The report, which Acting Chairman Michael Copps issued under his own name, came in response to the 2008 farm bill, passed May 22, 2008. As with the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which passed Congress in October, both measures point to the recognition that broadband – as a significant national priority – warrants a significant national policy.

Writes Copps: “Our efforts to bring robust and affordable broadband to rural America begin with a simple question: what is the current state of broadband in rural America? We would like to answer this question definitively, and detail where broadband facilities are deployed, their speeds, and the number of broadband subscribers throughout rural America. Regrettably, we cannot. The Commission and other federal agencies simply have not collected the comprehensive and reliable data needed to answer this question.”

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