BroadbandCensus.com Executive Director Drew Clark to Speak at NARUC Summer Meeting
Press Release WASHINGTON, July 11 – BroadbandCensus.com Executive Director Drew Clark has been invited to address the Summer Committee Meetings of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, to be held from July 20 to July 23 in Portland, Oregon.
‘Taking the Broadband Census for America’ is Subject of Session at Portland, Ore., Conference on Wednesday, July 23
Press Release
WASHINGTON, July 11, 2008 – BroadbandCensus.com Executive Director Drew Clark has been invited to address the Summer Committee Meetings of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, to be held from July 20 to July 23 in Portland, Oregon.
Clark launched BroadbandCensus.com in January 2008. The FREE web service allows consumers to type in their ZIP code and find out how many broadband providers the Federal Communications Commission says are available. The site then invites users to enter their ZIP+4 code, select their broadband carrier from a drop-down menu, and rate their carrier’s performance on a scale of one to five stars.
Site visitors are then led to a beta speed test, which compares actual internet speeds against carriers’ offered internet speeds. With the addition of the beta speed test in February 2008, thousands of visitors have Taken the Broadband Census, offered their comments about local broadband providers, and used the speed test.
Besides better informing consumers, BroadbandCensus.com seeks to aid policy-makers crafting sensible broadband policies based on solid research.
BroadbandCensus.com is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License. That means that the site is available, for free, for all to view, copy, redistribute and reuse, provided that attribution is provided to BroadbandCensus.com, and that such use is done for non-commercial purposes. Because of this license, government agencies and university researchers may republish the contents of the site on their own web sites, for example, so long as they attribute it to BroadbandCensus.com.
Below is the description of the session before the Committee on Telecommunications that Clark will lead, on Wednesday, July 23, at 10:30 a.m.:
“Taking the Broadband Census for America”
While there are other public and private efforts to map out the availability of broadband in the United States, BroadbandCensus.com brings a consumer-oriented focus to this task. Consumers need to know whether broadband is available within their ZIP codes and their neighborhood. But they also need to know the names of the broadband companies, and to compare actual to promised internet speeds. For states that want to help consumers understand their true broadband options, BroadbandCensus.com offers a new, and needed, approach.
Moderator Drew Clark – Executive Director – BroadbandCensus.com
Earlier in the conference, on Monday, July 21, at 3:30 p.m., Massachusetts Telecommunications Commissioner Sharon Gillett will lead a panel before the Committee on Telecommunications on a similar subject. Below is the description of that earlier session:
“Innovative Approaches to Broadband Mapping”
Federal, state and local policymakers have all been asking for more information and detail on where broadband is — and is not. It is a key question, because it will lead those same policymakers to craft solutions to a problem that is widely believed to exist, though sometimes with a paucity of hard data. This session will explore how different jursidictions are attempting to answer this critical question by studying some models that may be duplicated successfully elsewhere.
Moderator Hon. Sharon Gillett – Commissioner – Massachesetts Dept. of Telecommunications and Cable
About Broadband Census.com:
Broadband Census LLC is organized as a Limited Liability Company in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Drew Clark is the principal member of Broadband Census LLC. To find out more about the organizations and individuals providing financial, technical, research or outreach support to the Broadband Census, please visit http://broadbandcensus.com/home/aboutus
Contact:
Drew Clark, Executive Director
BroadbandCensus.com
E-mail: drew at broadbandcensus.com
Telephone: 202-580-8196
Web Site Referenced in this Press Release:
Program Guide of the Summer Committee Meetings, July 20-22, Portland, Ore., NARUC
