New NTIA Broadband Map Exposes Expensive, Patchy US Broadband

New NTIA Broadband Map Exposes Expensive, Patchy US Broadband

2 years ago
Anonymous $LNMzUc6XNz

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210622/08075247037/new-ntia-broadband-map-exposes-expensive-patchy-us-broadband.shtml

We've noted for a very long time that despite a lot of lip service about broadband, the U.S. government still doesn't have a very good idea of where broadband is or isn't available. There's a long line of reasons for this, including political pressure by regional monopolies that very much don't want a lack of competition and high prices to be apparent (somebody might get the crazy idea to try and fix the problem!). The FCC has also long been criticized for methodology that declares a census block (which can be hundreds of square miles) "served" with broadband if just one home can theoretically get service from an ISP.

The problem is made fairly apparent if you spent a few minutes with the FCC's $350 million broadband availability map, which just outright hallucinates available competitors and speeds, and can't be bothered to include an essential metric: prices.