Wireline

摘要

Public interest groups continued to urge the FCC to make changes to its draft order collecting broadbandndeployment data, or pull the item from circulation before the vote scheduled for Thursday's FCC meeting.nThis echoes comments Free Press has made to commission staff, although FCC officials have told us pulling the item is "unlikely" (CD June 17 p10). Improving the granularity of the commission’s data was ankey recommendation of the National Broadband Plan, said the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Centernfor Media Justice and New America Foundation in a joint letter (http://bit.ly/107NYWe). NTIA collectednblock-level information, which shows the approach is feasible, the public interest groups said. The groupsnalso pushed for the collection of pricing information to “facilitate meaningful analysis of marketplace competition.”nResearchers should have access to the data in a “searchable and user-friendly database,” and ISPsnshould report whether service in a Census block is available to every residence in that block, they said. “Thenmeasures in this letter will empower researchers, local governments and members of local communitiesnacross the nation to understand what is happening in their communities, compare that to what is happeningnelsewhere, and press their local internet service providers to provide affordable access for everyone.” If thencommission can’t implement the recommendations before the Thursday’s FCC meeting, it should “pull thenitem from the agenda,” the groups said. NAF separately wrote the agency to say it's concerned that broadbandndeployment data collected at a “relatively large census tract level” won’t be fully sufficient forn“reliable analysis” (http://bit.ly/107MATz). “The most effective digital literacy and broadband interventionsntake place at the neighborhood level,” said NAF’s Open Technology Institute. “With data only at the tractnlevel, it is difficult to locate trainings and resources in very densely populated urban areas, where there maynbe a need for multiple points of service within a tract.” Low population density in rural areas can “skew” annanalysis, with a large tract showing as “served” even if only one person in that tract has service, OTI said. Itncalled for collection of data at the block level to help urban and rural areas use scarce resources more effectively.nThe FCC is preparing to collect broadband deployment data on its Form 477, in order to take overnNational Broadband Map duties from NTIA (CD June 7 p16). NAF said it uses the data frequently to identifyngeographic areas for outreach efforts, and to understand the reasons for low broadband adoption.