Digital Divide

Experts Urge Data Oversight ‘Down to Jitter and Latency’ in Broadband Reporting

Schools, states, and data firms push broadband map accuracy.

Akul Saxena

Oct 30, 2025 — 2 min read

Photo of (from left to right) Scott D. Woods, president of public-private partnerships at Ready.net; Bryan Darr, vice president of government affairs at Ookla; Evan Feinman, principal at Feinman Strategic Network; Kelleigh Cole, director of policy and communications at the Utah Education and Telehealth Network; Philip Neufeld (moderator), executive officer for strategic research at Fresno Unified School District speak during the broadband mapping panel at the AnchorNets 2025 Conference in Arlington, Va.

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 30 , 2025 — It’s still an issue: There are gaps in the broadband maps.

Mapping specialists and anchor institution officials said the nation’s broadband maps still fail to show how reliably families can get online, and that schools, libraries, and data firms are helping to close the gap.

The session, here at the AnchorNets 2025 Conference, examined how federal broadband programs such as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment and E-Rate depended on precise, verifiable data. Participants said the Federal Communications Commission’s new location-based maps marked progress over the older census-block system but remained incomplete without granular data from anchor institutions.

Post tagged in

Digital Divide NTIA Broadband Mapping and Data Scott D. Woods Evan Feinman Bryan Darr Kelleigh Cole Philip Nuefeld AnchorNETS Ready.net Ookla Speed Test Utah Fresno Anchor Institutions AnchorNets 2025