As we recently noted, Maryland lawmakers were working on a plan that would force ISPs in the state to present quarterly reports on exactly where they offer service and at what speeds in order to help the state solve broadband penetration issues. Local papers now report that the plan has been scuttled by Verizon and Comcast lobbyists, who claim the law would do everything from stifle innovation to close down regional coffee shops (that logic isn't explained).

Maryland's plan was a reaction to a problem we've touched on endlessly: FCC broadband data is not reliable, so nobody in this country really knows the depth of coverage gaps. Without knowing the reality on the ground, lawmakers can't draft effective policy (if such an idea was possible to begin with). The Center for Public Integrity recently sued the FCC in order to obtain the FCC's unpublicized raw data on broadband penetration (see our interview).

Incumbents have been fighting the release of that data, which would indicate exactly which neighborhoods incumbents deem "profitable to serve" and could shine light on the kind of calculations they use to come to that determination. Incumbents claim the release of the data would cause "competitive harm"; Verizon recently insisted that cherry picking affluent neighborhoods "was not in their corporate DNA."

The FCC seems unwilling to improve their data collection methodology. Incumbent providers are not interested in providing data that illuminates their deployment shortfalls. State and local governments are left without the information needed to help improve geographical broadband coverage, and attempts to correct this are shot down by deep-pocketed lobbyists. So what's the solution?