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FCC Notes Huge Interest In New Broadband Map
Agency Says They're Tripling Efforts To Improve Infrastructure

As we noted earlier this week, Uncle Sam launched our first ever broadband map to mixed reviews. Many believe the map is better than having no data at all, though ISP lobbying prevented the NTIA from revealing price information and real-world speed performance. We also noted that the map appears to hallucinate ISPs out of whole cloth, listing carriers as doing business in many markets when they don't even operate in the state. The map is a very expensive beta, and on a more positive note -- the FCC servers didn't collapse under the weight of interest. A blog post by the FCC's Andrew Burger highlights visitation data from the first day:

Click for full size

Total hits yesterday: 158,123,884

Hits served by cache: 141,068,348 (89.21%)

Total Bytes Transferred: 863GB

Peak Requests per Second: 8,970

Average Requests per Second: 1,095

Visits in the first 10 hours: over 500,000

"This phenomenal response shows that the investment of time, energy, and — not least of all — Congressional funds were well worth it," insists Burger. "The National Broadband Map clearly has a market of interest, and we’re extremely proud to see that market being well served." Burger insists that the map will "increase transparency and understanding," and that the team is "tripling efforts" to improve infrastructure. Again though -- the fact that the NTIA folded to carrier demands and isn't collecting real speed and price data makes the map less useful -- something that won't be getting fixed by additional servers. Again if you haven't checked it out yet, the map can be found here.
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DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

DavePR

Member

That is one klunky web site

I guess you overloaded it with your hyperlink

Cheese
Premium Member
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL

Cheese

Premium Member

OHMYGOSH...

863GB, damn HOGS!
maubs
join:2010-02-26
Farmington, IL

maubs

Member

Can't report speed inaccuracies

You can report (with a yes/no link) whether a provider services your location, but there's no way to report that the speeds listed are completely inaccurate.
kmcmurtrie
join:2006-04-18
Sunnyvale, CA

kmcmurtrie

Member

Re: Can't report speed inaccuracies

I don't understand how the FCC didn't notice that Telcos provided them with false data. Comcast reported service 20 times faster than is actually available for my area. That's not optimism or reporting on future services. That's lying.

powerspec88
Premium Member
join:2007-03-11
Lees Summit, MO

powerspec88

Premium Member

Incomplete.

And the map is still incomplete. The ISP it shows for my town is wrong and one is missing. It shows that I don't have any type of internet where I live, but here I am with 10Mbps DSL, same goes with my friend that lives north of me in Peculiar, maps shows nothing but he has 1.5Mbps DSL for over 3 years. Where did they get their info from?

inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK

inteller

Member

Re: Incomplete.

something sinister happened at the national level. If you view any individual state's broadband map, they are generally accurate. However the SAME data submitted to the national map is wrong/bad. I confirmed this for Arkansas and Oklahoma. I suspect the same thing happened for Missouri and I suspect it had something to do with telco lobbying at the national level.

kevinh123
@charter.com

kevinh123

Anon

Re: Incomplete.

for my area it marks AT&T DSL as having 10-25mbps download and 1.5 - 3 mbps upload. In fact the highest they will provide is 6 download and .75 upload. They get the lobbying benefit of uverse without actually providing it.
BravoGolf
join:2006-12-30
Gary, IN

BravoGolf

Member

Re: Incomplete.

UVERSE!! How about getting credit for dark VRADS all over the landscape! Lets get credit for UVERSE speeds but not actually hook anyone up.
iolaire
join:2001-06-29
Arlington, VA

iolaire

Member

Please email to ask where is the pricing information

I recommend everyone email in and say that you cannot find pricing information on the site – where is it - and add some sort of personal comment relating to why you feel pricing data is important.

I see no reason to acknowledge that they might have made a choice to not collect pricing data.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

1 recommendation

djrobx

Premium Member

Heh..

This phenomenal response shows that the investment of time, energy, and — not least of all — Congressional funds were well worth it

... Or maybe people can't resist a good trainwreck when they encounter one.
BB_Hunter
join:2008-05-16

BB_Hunter

Member

Useless

I think you need to take whatever speeds they indicate in your area and divide them in half. The first location I tested indicated 3-6Mbps and it isn't even served with broadband....

Not to mention it took forever to load and offers noway to really input data about your specific location. If you want an accurate map why not let us input the tiers/provider available at a specific address to build "real" results?

This map is FUD, how much did we waste on this again?
rdmiller
join:2005-09-23
Richmond, VA

rdmiller

Member

google search

Remind me again how many years google had a beta icon on its main search page?

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221

Member

utter crap

»www.broadbandmap.gov/int ··· 9999999/

Frontier may SAY they have 6 mbit but I've never seen it faster than 4 mbit. TWC is not D3 so their 50-100 is bogus. VZ amp shows 15 Mbit DSL but CO only have 7.1 Mbit line cards (well, it did last night when i looked for DSL)

EUS
Kill cancer
Premium Member
join:2002-09-10
canada

EUS

Premium Member

Tripling efforts=

Tripling the costs? Next map to cost $900M ?

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Re: Tripling efforts=

they will be multiplying the costs dividing the result

thedragonmas
Premium Member
join:2007-12-28
Albany, GA
Netgear R6300 v2
ARRIS SB6180

thedragonmas

Premium Member

samknows?

and the point of this was what? since we all so have samknows..

this map shows att with 10-25Mbps here, nope. says verizion and various others are here when there not.

they may be counting wireless in this mess.

i cant wait untill samknows gets there act together and eventually releases REAL data instead of this crap made from what ISP's tell the government to say exists...

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

1 recommendation

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Re: samknows?

heres an idea make a map that has the ceo or chairman of each major ISP required to sign a contract

if a user uses the map to locate services and said services aren't there then have a requirement to offer said services to the location in no more than 30 days or suffer a huge penalty

failure to sign the contract would deny the ISP from any "broadband stimulus" funds and breach of contract to fullfill the stated services with X% growth per year would result if all "broadband stimulus" funds being revoked at a 40% APR and a large fine of no more than the CEO/CFO's pay going to the least served comunity

this would ensure that the map is accurate and any mistakes would be fixed asap as well as ensuring growth in both speed and foot print

buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH

buzz_4_20

Member

Flawed Data

The map only show's what's advertised not what consumers are actually getting...
alfnoid
MVM
join:2002-02-18

alfnoid

MVM

How do you tell who serves an area?

I just took a quick look at the map and may have missed the obvious, but couldn't see how you can tell what isp is serving the area you are looking at on the map.

I also love how 80% of the state of IN is docsis 3, yet none of IL is.
Lines cut off at the border it seems. hehehe
bcltoys
join:2008-07-21

bcltoys

Member

Maryland/Cecil county

They have my county at 98% 4megs or better this is total bull shit.The hole lower part of the county on the shore no one has better then 1.5megs and that is in the town of cecilton on lowest level dsl. The cable down here if you get it is still analog.
jeepwrang3
join:2011-02-24
North East, MD

jeepwrang3

Member

Re: Maryland/Cecil county

Definitely. I'm over at Turkey Point, and they are saying we have DSL. LOL. We have Bay Broadband that can only be reached by 10 houses or something very small. Hoping this does change the current process of those of us that dont live in a metro area being forgotten about.

CompTech
@comcastbusiness.net

CompTech

Anon

Comcast 1GBPS?

I just searched my area, Concord, CA and the map says Comcast offers 1Gbps, but I just talked to a Comcast rep about the 1Gbps and the fastest service they offer is 50Mbps, and when I brought up the Broadband Map and told her about what it says, the rep couldnt give me any information. Sounds like someone lied at Comcast.
SailorPaul4
join:2010-09-11
Thousand Oaks, CA

SailorPaul4

Member

Easy fix to the telco and cable company lying

If the national broadband map shows a speed that the telco or cable company is unable to deliver to your home, then that's an automatic un-contestable fine that the carrier has to pay within 10 days.

Let's say 60% to you the whistle-blowing consumer, and 40% to the FCC just to offset the lobbying influence.

CompTech
@comcastbusiness.net

CompTech

Anon

Re: Easy fix to the telco and cable company lying

Sounds like Comcast needs a nice big fine for lying to all of us, and I should get part of it. Not that I want the money, I just want Comcast and all the other big ISPs to follow the rules.

Like that will EVER happen.
jupiter837
join:2010-11-26
Golden, MS

jupiter837

Member

WTF

Ok, for me this map is completely useless because the services it says I can get I can't.

But, as I understand it they spent 300 million to make this piece of crap. Well I just did a check of the 2010 census and it said the population of the United States is, 310,866,579. Now figure in most people live in households, on my street for example there are 11 house holds that can't get broadband other than satellite or cellco. If you divide what they spent of this map by the population we would all have gotten like $90,000 each. The cable company only wants 14,000 to expand cable to my house, which would have also covered the the other 11 households on my street. So for what they spent to tell me a I can a service I can't, I and 11 other house holds could have gotten the service for less than what they spent to feel me full of crap. Am I wrong?

jap
Premium Member
join:2003-08-10
038xx

1 edit

jap

Premium Member

Re: WTF

I cannot make sense of your argument or math. Using your numbers the map cost us 96.5 cents per person.

MonkeyLick78
join:2002-01-27
Hixson, TN

MonkeyLick78

Member

..

My isp is completely missing from the list at my location. It's not a major issue but it seems odd to leave out a muni fiber network on a project like this.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude

Premium Member

Inaccurate in my area.

It didn't even list my cable ISP in my city.

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup

Premium Member

Odd map.

It shows a very detailed four block area where I live, no businesses, showing Cablevision offering 1 Gbs fiber to the premise. It shows one block in the middle not covered so it purports to be accurate to the block and lot. This four block area is floating all by its self in an area where Cablevision's Lightpath does not come close to.

Funny about five years ago I called Cablevision and asked about fiber to my premise and they said yes if I paid $10,000 for a cable run from the CO to my premise, a run of a little over one mile.

Perhaps the map shows where a provider offered to deploy a service.
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