nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
 ·Comcast
| good luck dude
not sure how successful this will be - the incumbents will fight tooth and nail to prevent official data from becoming public.
unless and until there is ever an FCC run by people that actually believe they have a responsibility to consumers rather than those they regulate, this information just won't see the light of day. |
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birdfeedr
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-11
Warwick, RI
 ·Verizon FIOS
| said by nasadude  :not sure how successful this will be - the incumbents will fight tooth and nail to prevent official data from becoming public. unless and until there is ever an FCC run by people that actually believe they have a responsibility to consumers rather than those they regulate, this information just won't see the light of day. That's what Clark is saying. FCC only releases numbers that are opaque, and don't say much about real broadband penetration. Yes, it's clear incumbents have paid lots of bucks lobbied hard to keep data hidden.
That's why he (Clark) launched a website to collect data on who provides, how fast, and how satisfied you are by zipcode.
FCC says there's 10 providers in my zipcode. I want to know who they are. Oh say, maybe I want to contact a competitor about availability. But I can only think of three, plus covad. So who is the FCC counting? And is it bogus info? And why is it so secretive?
Go to »www.broadbandcensus.com to add data from your neck of the woods.
FCC refuses to release the data, so he's trying to gather it himself. |
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Estragon
join:2003-06-20
Greenville, NH
 ·Fairpoint Communic..
·MV Communications,..
| I did. But the dumb ass site has no way for me to tell them that there are NO broadband options in my neck of the woods. |
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birdfeedr
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-11
Warwick, RI
·Verizon FIOS
| said by Estragon :But the dumb ass site has no way for me to tell them that there are NO broadband options in my neck of the woods. Greenville, NH comes up 03048, and USPS says that is also Mason, NH.
BroadbandCensus.com reports the FCC says 8 providers, BroadbandCensus starts with 1: TimeWarner Cable.
Can you get cable? Can you get DSL? You could be too far away for that, but I guess FCC says it's available even if it isn't. Maybe they are including ISDN and satellite in their count.
All of this just points to the problems FCC causes by not having open data. It does protect the incumbents.
The problem with adding a No Broadband vote is that your definition and my definition of broadband may be different. There seems to be something wrong with the FCC's definition, so why not variation in what other people consider broadband/not broadband.
BroadbandCensus tries to get around that by just asking, what's available. If, after a period of time, there's no additional responses, it will be obvious that:
a) there are fewer than 8 broadband providers in 03048,
b) what's available doesn't really count as broadband in consumers minds, or
c) not enough people cared to respond with what they do have.
This data collection method may fail from lack of response. Which may put pressure on FCC to at least open up some of their data. |
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