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Broadband is not really available where the government says it is. And this misinformation means that many Americans, especially those in poor, rural areas, do not have access to broadband – a service that is increasingly becoming an integral part of daily life in the United States.
The Federal Communications Commission, the government agency responsible for overseeing Internet connectivity, uses, among other things, self-reported data by Internet service providers. Even if we badume that these ISPs are reporting accurately, what they are required to report is not very useful. And the bad data means that federal money is not spent properly to create broadband access.
Internet Service Providers must indicate whether a census block – an inaccurate geographic area between one-tenth of a mile and 8,500 km and zero to 600 people – has access to "advertised" broadband download speeds. 39, at least 25 megabits per second. , the minimum requirement to be considered broadband.
An entire census block is considered "served" if the broadband service is available anywhere in it. For example, even if you can not access the Internet at home or in your business, your region may be considered 100% uptime because someone who is hundreds of miles away is connected. Even the broadband wiring that runs next to your home does not guarantee that there can be Internet access in your home.
"It's like having a faucet that does not work," said Adie Tomer, a member of the Brookings Institution, who has written extensively on broadband issues in the United States.
It is important to note that access is not the same as usage.
Even though you can have broadband at home, the speeds you receive may not be as fast as those advertised. If you subscribe to an advertised 25 Mbps plan, chances are that it is actually slower, and you do not even use broadband technically. In addition, Internet packages can be prohibitively expensive, even in rural areas, effectively preventing many poorer Americans from using it.
"Right now, in the US, the focus is on physical infrastructure, not people who choose to subscribe or are able to subscribe," said Angela Siefer, National Executive Director. Digital Inclusion Alliance, a non-profit organization that advocates for national broadband access.
In essence, government data measure areas in which an Internet connection could exist rather than where he is.
As you can see from the map below, FCC data indicates that most countries have high rates of broadband availability:
But having availability does not mean that people are starting to use it. Microsoft's data on broadband usage – released in late 2007 and based on anonymous data collected by the company on the speed with which its products were used and updated – paints a much darker picture. This shows that most countries in America do not have a high rate of broadband usage:
Microsoft data indicate that 163 million people do not use High-speed Internet in the United States, while the FCC estimates that not available for 25 millions of Americans. It's a difference of 138 million people, more than a third of the American population.
Most troubling is that FCC uses this data to make strategic Internet decisions and allocates $ 4.6 billion in grants and funds each year to address the country's rural connectivity gaps.
"There is a lot of money tied to this data," according to Kathryn de Wit, head of the broadband research initiative for Pew Charitable Trusts. "If a community is considered served, it is often no longer eligible to receive funding. If you have an inaccurate picture of what block-level connectivity looks like, you may be moving to communities that really need it. "
Recently, Pew organized a discussion with broadband industry leaders and policy makers to discuss better metrics for evaluating broadband in the future.
On this occasion, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel summed up the question succinctly: "We can not manage what we do not measure."
And broadband has become increasingly important: people now depend on it, whether it is to make a living or to obtain Medicaid coverage. Schoolchildren and small businesses need broadband internet to carry out their tasks and compete with the world. Those who do not have adequate internet access already lack vital information about the world around them.
In addition, insufficient broadband access is much more common in poor and rural areas – those already suffering from a host of other inequities that make these people ideal candidates for the future. And, by extension, a worsening of future inequalities. There is already a digital divide in America between those who can and can not access the tools that will govern our future success. Broadband may exacerbate this fracture.
Why would the FCC use inaccurate availability data to make decisions in the first place?
"It's a data program that is terribly underfunded," said Tomer. "That's why we see a structure that relies on self-reported data from the very companies that are encouraged to suggest covering as many households as possible." A better program would be more expensive to administer.
In addition, ISPs believe that providing more granular data would be an undue and impossible burden for them. In a recent letter to the FCC, USTelecom, a group representing leading telecom operators such as AT & T, Verizon and CenturyLink, wrote that requiring Internet service providers to produce data from Sub-consensus more detailed is "technically not feasible", "would produce inaccurate data" and "will not provide the Commission with the information it seeks to obtain."
Internet Service Providers currently complete a Form 477 document twice a year, which is used as the basis for government broadband cards.
"We know that Form 477 has been used for almost two years now," said Christopher Ali, an badistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and a research scholar at the Benton Foundation. "But it's the tension between industry and regulation, and the industry is winning, at the expense of rural America."
The FCC is currently reviewing how it measures broadband, but it is unclear when and if it will make changes.
The FCC has not responded to a request for comment.
Rural areas have particularly poor broadband connections. This is because it is expensive to physically install cables, especially in remote areas, and the small population in these areas does not provide a great financial incentive. This makes government support more critical in these areas. But these regions can not get this support if the government looks at the wrong map.
"While rural communities make up only 15% of the country's total population, they represent 57% of the country's residents in neighborhoods where broadband has not yet been deployed," according to a report published in 2017. by Brookings, who listed the subscription data for the network. 100 largest metropolitan areas.
Microsoft's Airband Initiative is a partnership with telecom companies to bring broadband to 3 million people in rural America by 2022. It is planned to use white space between television – what some call the super wifi – to broadcast the wireless Internet further than the mobile access points. This method is much less expensive than the installation of fixed lines at home.
Microsoft itself has some skin in the game. The company wants its customers to benefit from faster service and updates for its products, including Office, Cloud Services and Bing. Microsoft is also expected to earn money thanks to billions of grants and subsidies awarded by the government each year to improve broadband in rural areas. A majority of this money is now going to telecommunications companies. Microsoft is working with ISPs to facilitate broadband access in rural areas, but does not want to become an ISP.
Despite the problems posed by FCC cards, overall broadband speeds have accelerated. The problem of broadband is not comparable to that of other critical infrastructure systems.
As we wait at the national level, a number of not-for-profit organizations and states are taking the matter into their own hands by gathering their own data to overlap with the FCC and expanding their own reach. broadband. But it is unlikely that such one-time efforts will fill any gaps in broadband connectivity in America.
"The real positive work is now local – it's solving the problems right now," according to Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. "But many places do not solve broadband problems, and they are blocked without recourse. The FCC must solve this problem holistically. "
See how your county is measured here:
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