Broadband Breakfast on October 26, 2022 – Challenging the Broadband Fabric
Amid rising discontent about the FCC’s use of the “broadband fabric” to measure broadband availability, what are the alternatives?
Discontent is rising about the Federal Communications Commission’s use of the so-called “broadband fabric” to measure the availability of broadband on an address-by-address basis. Many are concerned that the FCC is dismissing or minimizing the ability of consumers to bring speed test challenges to fabric data. Additionally, the private nature of the fabric is a concern to those who say publicly-available information is needed for building out broadband. What are the alternatives to the fabric, and how might the fabric be challenged at the FCC, the NTIA, state broadband offices, or in court?
David B. McGarry
Panelists:
- Sascha Meinrath, Director, X-Lab and Palmer Chair in Telecommunications, Penn State University
- Michael Kleeman, Professor, George Mason University
- Scott D. Woods, Vice President for Community Engagement & Strategic Partnerships, Ready.net
- Adam Carpenter, Chief Data Officer, Montana Department of Administration
- Drew Clark (moderator), Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast
Panelist resources:
- NTIA Plans to Award $50 Million Contract to CostQuest, but Considers Competitive Procurement, Broadband Breakfast, October 24, 2022
- Communities Must Be Accurate in Fabric-Challenge Submissions, says Mapping Non-profit, Broadband Breakfast, October 21, 2022
- After Controversial Panel on Mapping, FCC Confirms No Charges for Access to Fabric, Broadband Breakfast, October 13, 2022
- FCC’s Fabric Challenge Process Important Part of Getting Map Right, Agency Says, Broadband Breakfast, September 8, 2022
- Montana Mapping Official: Treasury Deadline for ARPA Fund Disbursement Probably Too Soon, Broadband Breakfast, April 13, 2022
Sascha Meinrath is the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University and director of X-Lab, an innovative think tank focusing on the intersection of vanguard technologies and public policy. Prior to creating the X-Lab, Meinrath was vice president of the New America Foundation, where he founded the Open Technology Institute in 2008 and built it into one of the largest public interest tech policy organizations in Washington, D.C. He also founded the Commotion Wireless Project, which works around the globe to strengthen communities by providing tools to build their own local communications infrastructures, and co-founded Measurement Lab, a global online platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools that empower the public and key decision-makers with useful information about broadband connectivity.
Michael Kleeman is a serial CTO and has worked in networks across five continents and deployed fiber, long haul, local, middle mile and even submarine systems, since the mid 1980s. Kleeman has a deep understanding of network economics, both capital and operating, across a wide array of local, long distance and international geographies utilizing current and emerging technologies for transmission and network deployment. He is a professor of practice at George Mason University.
Scott D. Woods is the Vice President for Community Engagement and Strategic Partnerships for Ready.net, where he facilitates and develops key public-private partnerships formed via the Broadband.Money platform. He also focuses on providing a platform for local communities to express their needs for broadband access and digital equity investments, as well as developing industry partnerships, and fostering alliances with key stakeholders to advance and support community-based broadband education and advocacy initiatives.
With a background software engineering and data analysis, Adam Carpenter discovered Machine Learning (AI) when it was still in its infancy and found his passion. Impressed by the transformational power of AI early on, it quickly became clear that it is the last step in a long data maturity journey. Adam has since spent a career helping organizations through that journey so they can better use their data to serve their customers. After receiving the call to public service, Adam is now facilitating this journey for the state of Montana through this same journey.
Drew Clark (moderator) is CEO of Breakfast Media LLC, the Editor and Publisher of BroadbandBreakfast.com and a nationally-respected telecommunications attorney. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, he served as head of the State Broadband Initiative in Illinois. Now, in light of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, attorney Clark helps fiber-based and wireless clients secure funding, identify markets, broker infrastructure and operate in the public right of way.
