House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Chairman Edward J. Markey's (D-MA) Broadband Census of America Act was given initial approval this week. The bill is designed to "provide for a comprehensive nationwide inventory of existing broadband service, and for other purposes" and will produce a national broadband inventory map. I've beat around broadband a bit here and have expressed my frustration regarding the "broadband divide" in the United States today.
According to the FCC website, broadband is generally defined in the United States as follows:
"High-speed Internet access or “broadband” allows users to access the Internet and Internet-related services at significantly higher speeds than those available through “dial-up” Internet access services. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) generally defines broadband service as data transmission speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 200,000 bits per second, in at least one direction: downstream (from the Internet to your computer) or upstream (from your computer to the Internet)."
The bill had language to change this - according to DSLReports.com:It's extremely unfortunate to see the 2 Mbps minimum removed for obvious reasons. Markey has posted an interesting release regarding the current broadband collection methods - here's a piece:
This obviously needs to change. Markey goes on to praise mapping work done in Kentucky:
A colleague in Kentucky, Vince Dinoto, has shown me some of these maps - very impressive. You can see some of the Kentucky work here. Figuring out exactly where services are needed - mapping - is one of the first steps in breaking the "broadband divide" in this country.
The bill is now up for consideration by the full House Energy and Commerce Committee.