CNET: The FCC’s broadband map won’t be ready for a year. This data company has already built one. “LightBox, which helped the state of Georgia build what some experts call the most detailed broadband map in the country, published its own US map late Wednesday that combines its precise address data with information from about 2 billion Wi-Fi access points across the country.”
Techdirt: FCC Bungled Broadband Mapping And Subsidies So Badly, It Got Boxed Out Of Broadband Infrastructure Plan. “While the agency has been taking steps to remedy some of the problems under interim boss Jessica Rosenworcel, the agency’s mapping and subsidy dysfunction seems to have resulted in it being boxed out of managing the $65 billion in new broadband funding included in the infrastructure bill.”
Government Technology: Leaders Say Black, Tribal Colleges Need More Than Broadband. “Broadband connectivity alone doesn’t make a postsecondary institution inclusive or competitive, said tech leaders from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) during a National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) webinar Wednesday.”
Techdirt: New Study Tries, Fails, To Claim Community Broadband Is An Inevitable Boondoggle. “For years a growing number of US towns and cities have been forced into the broadband business thanks to US telecom market failure. Frustrated by high prices, lack of competition, spotty coverage, and terrible customer service, some 750 US towns and cities have explored some kind of community broadband option. And while the telecom industry routinely likes to insist these efforts always end in disaster, that’s never actually been true. While there certainly are bad business plans and bad leaders, studies routinely show that such services not only see the kind of customer satisfaction scores that are alien to large private ISPs, they frequently offer better service at lower, more transparent pricing than many private providers.”
New York Times: Surging Traffic Is Slowing Down Our Internet. “… last week, as a wave of stay-at-home orders rolled out across the United States, the average time it took to download videos, emails and documents increased as broadband speeds declined 4.9 percent from the previous week, according to Ookla, a broadband speed testing service. Median download speeds dropped 38 percent in San Jose, Calif., and 24 percent in New York, according to Broadband Now, a consumer broadband research site.”
AlticeUSA: Altice USA Brings Free Broadband to K-12 and College Students During Coronavirus Pandemic. “Altice USA is committed to helping schools and students stay connected during this unprecedented time. For households with K-12 and/or college students who may be displaced due to school closures and who do not currently have home internet access, we are offering our Altice Advantage 30 Mbps broadband solution for free for 60 days to any new customer household within our footprint.”
New York Times: No Cell Signal, No Wi-Fi, No Problem. Growing Up Inside America’s ‘Quiet Zone’. “Welcome to Green Bank, population 143, where Wi-Fi is both unavailable and banned and where cellphone signals are nonexistent. The near radio silence is a requirement for those living close to the town’s most prominent and demanding resident, the Green Bank Observatory, home to the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. To protect the sensitive equipment from interference, the federal government in 1958 established the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area near the state’s border with Virginia.”
Route Fifty: Frustrated by Flawed Broadband Maps, States Are Trying to Create Their Own. “State officials tasked with overseeing expansion of broadband to their residents say it is paramount to have accurate information about where infrastructure and service is lacking. But because connectivity data collected by the Federal Communications Commission often overestimates broadband’s reach, many states are trying to gather their own data, sometimes going door-to-door to query residents, to better understand service gaps.”
Ars Technica: CenturyLink, Frontier took FCC cash, failed to deploy all required broadband. “CenturyLink and Frontier Communications have apparently failed to meet broadband-deployment requirements in numerous states where they are receiving government funding to expand their networks in rural areas. CenturyLink notified the Federal Communications Commission that it ‘may not have reached the deployment milestone’ in 23 states and that it hit the latest deadline in only 10 states.” Note this fail did not stop CenturyLink from winning a $1.6 billion federal contract this month.
Ars Technica: AT&T et al. fight against higher upload speeds in $20-billion FCC program. “AT&T, Frontier, Windstream, and their industry lobby group are fighting against higher Internet speeds in a US subsidy program for rural areas without good broadband access.”
Ars Technica: 50% of US homes still won’t have fiber broadband by 2025, study says. “Fiber broadband is now available to more than 30% of households across the US, and fiber networks should reach 50% of homes by 2025, a new study says. But 50% coverage would obviously leave another 50% of homes without access to the fastest wireline broadband technology.”
Ars Technica: FCC finally orders ISPs to say exactly where they offer broadband. “The Federal Communications Commission voted today to collect more accurate data about which parts of the US have broadband and which parts lack high-speed connectivity. From now on, home Internet providers will have to give the FCC geospatial maps of where they provide service instead of merely reporting which census blocks they offer service in.”
Marketplace: To get broadband to every American, you need to know the rules in all 50 states. “Over 30% of Americans don’t have access to broadband internet — defined as 25 megabits per second or higher — according to research released Tuesday by The NPD Group. The Pew Charitable Trusts wants to figure out why. The organization’s Broadband Research Initiative is launching a new tool Wednesday that lets anyone browse through broadband policies and funding in any state in the U.S.”
Digital Trends: About a third of U.S. households lack broadband internet. 5G may change that. “A new report that addresses the topic of broadband internet access in the United States features a startling statistic: Almost a third of U.S. households do not have access to a broadband internet connection.”
Ars Technica: FCC gives ISPs another $563 million to build rural-broadband networks. “More than 220,000 unserved rural homes and businesses in 24 states will get broadband access because of funding authorized yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission, the agency said. In all, the FCC authorized more than $563 million for distribution to ISPs over the next decade. It’s the latest payout from the commission’s Connect America Fund, which was created in 2011.”
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