We Have a Lot of Questions
The FCC is asking whether it could be collecting better data on broadband deployment:
Notwithstanding the robust statistics and the more granular broadband data that have been reported on FCC Form 477 beginning September 1, 2005, the Commission continues to consider the need to improve its data collection, particularly regarding data reflecting broadband deployment and availability in rural and other hard-to-serve areas, and also regarding subscribership to new broadband-enabled services such as interconnected VoIP service.
Th Commission has come in for a lot of heat (from the GAO and others) for always having good news on broadband deployment. Penetration is increasing! because if broadband is somehow available in a zip code, we count everyone in the zip code as covered –no matter how many actual subscriber there are. We're doing better and better! because we count wireless carriers as an option, even though they're owned by the same old telcos and they're providing very-high-walled gardens. So now's your chance to help them out in the data collection techniques department.
And why you're at it, you could file comments by May 16 about what's actually going on in the highspeed access world. Here's the Notice of Inquiry. Just may take a few years. But, as I reported a while ago when the Commissioners met to consider this not very dramatic step, they're saying that they have zero evidence that there is any blocking or interference taking place. Of course, no one really knows, because outside researchers aren't allowed in. And our expectations are so low, and there are alway a lot of explanations as to why X or Y might be happening. (E.g., Why couldn't I upload using my Verizon connection last night? could be something having to do with a hop far away. Who knows.)
So They Have a Lot of Questions. Should keep everyone busy for a while. We can chat about all this with our friends in the U.K. Meanwhile, in Japan, Korea, Amsterdam, and a host of other places, they've got other things to think about.
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