Save Access

from: Multichannel News

House Panel Approves Broadband Census Bill
Bill Would Require FCC to Conduct Annual Survey on High-Speed Internet Deployments

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 10/10/2007 4:14:00 PM

Washington – A House subcommittee controlled by Democrats approved draft legislation Wednesday afternoon that would require federal and state agencies to cooperate in accurately collecting data on the availability and penetration of high-speed Internet access across the country.

The legislation isn’t expected to sail through with minority Republican support until agreement is reached on the use of subscriber data that cable and phone companies would need to report to a division of the U.S. Commerce Department.

The bill is backed by telecom policy veteran Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who has blasted the Bush administration for letting the U.S. tumble to 15th place in controversial world broadband performance rankings kept by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Among other things, Markey’s bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to conduct an annual survey that examines all broadband technologies that have been deployed, where they have been deployed and the number of consumers who subscribe and the data speeds they’re offered. The FCC would need to compare its findings with broadband developments around the globe.

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration would need to create a map showing in detail where broadband technology is available and where it is not. NTIA’s would be authorized to collect data from the FCC and broadband providers. State agencies would receive at least $8 million annually in federal funds to assist NTIA’s collection.

If enacted, the bill could provide the empirical foundation that Markey and other House Democrats appear to want to justify passage of new legislation calling for more government involvement in setting broadband goals for the country, in contrast with Republican policy emphasizing deregulation with minimal government oversight.

“The state of knowledge around the status of broadband services in the United States also affects the ability of policymakers to make sound decisions,” Markey said. “The federal government can do a much better job in reforming multi-billion dollar grant and subsidy programs, whether at the Rural Utilities Service or the universal service program at the FCC.”

The bill, which has not been formally introduced, was approved by unanimous voice vote by the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee headed by Markey, who pledged to iron out differences with Republicans before a vote by the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

Rep. Joe Barton (D-Texas), his party’s senior member on the full committee, said he was concerned that Markey’s bill is trying to “collect competitively sensitive subscriber data” from broadband providers.

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) agreed on the need to protect sensitive company data but only up to a point, otherwise the purpose of the bill would be frustrated.

“I don’t want to give everybody access to proprietary information, but there has got to be a way to present the data in an open fashion,” Doyle said.

The bill, called the Broadband Census of America Act, is supported the cable industry largest trade organization, probably because any government survey would show that cable modem service is widely available and about to leap from top broadband speeds of 5 megabits to “wideband” speeds approaching 150 megabits.

“Cable’s broadband service is currently available to 94% of all U.S. households; however, improved data about the availability and speed of all broadband offerings will help accomplish the important goal of further promoting ubiquitous broadband availability for all Americans,” National Cable & Telecommunications Association president Kyle McSlarrow said in statement released shortly after the committee vote.

The FCC has come under criticism for relying on a 200 kilobit standard to qualify as broadband, although FCC chairman Kevin Martin has that under review. The FCC’s reliance on five-digit zip codes, according to Markey, has inflated broadband penetration statistics.

“Currently, the FCC counts a single broadband subscriber in a five-digit zip code as indicating that the entire zip code has broadband availability,” Markey said, adding the distortions are greatest in rural areas “where zip codes are quite large.”

OECD rankings released in April are controversial because the U.S. – while trailing such countries as Denmark, Iceland and Belgium based on broadband penetration per 100 inhabitants – still has the largest total number of broadband subscribers at 58.1 million, equaling nearly one-third of all broadband subscribers included in OECD’s findings.

Critics also question whether comparisons between a largely rural, continental nation like the U.S. and some densely populated European and Asian nations actually yield meaningful data. Nevertheless, FCC Democrat Michael Copps has remarked that few complained about OECD methodology a few years ago when the U.S. was near the top of the list.