Telecom Lobby Suddenly Pretends To Care About Accurate Broadband Maps

For a country that likes to talk about "being number one" a lot, that's sure not reflected in the United States' broadband networks, or the broadband maps we use to determine which areas lack adequate broadband or competition (resulting in high prices and poor service). Our terrible broadband maps are, of course, a feature not a bug; ISPs have routinely lobbied to kill any efforts to improve data collection and analysis, lest somebody actually realize the telecom market is a broken mono/duopoly whose dysfunction reaches into every aspect of tech.

If you want to see our terrible broadband maps at work, you need only go visit the FCC's $350+ million broadband availability map, which is based on the Form 477 data collected from ISPs. If you plug in your address, you'll find that not only does the FCC not include prices (at industry behest), the map hallucinates speed and ISP availability at most U.S. addresses. Part of the problem is that the FCC declares an entire region "served" with broadband if just one home in a census block has service. Again, ISPs fight efforts to reform this in a bid to protect the status quo.

Curiously, USTelecom (which is a policy and lobbying vessel for AT&T and Verizon) last week launched a new PR campaign in which they now profess to be immensely troubled by the country's terrible broadband maps. As such, in an editorial over at CNET, the group stated it's now "leading the charge" in better broadband mapping via several new trials it's conducting in Missouri and Virginia:

"USTelecom is leading the charge on a new, more precise, approach to broadband reporting and mapping. We have proposed to Congress and regulatory agencies a method to create a public-private partnership to map America's broadband infrastructure so policymakers and providers can better target scarce funding to communities with limited or no service options."

Again, one would be inclined to actually believe that if they hadn't watched this same organization routinely try to scuttle better broadband mapping efforts or deny the industry's competition and availability issues for the better part of the last two decades.

The plan itself is rather vague. In it, USTelecom proclaims that it will use "multiple sources of address, building, and parcel data" to create "a broadband serviceable location fabric" to better identify where broadband is available, and where it isn't. But consumer group analysts who've fought for years for better mapping told me they believe the real goal of USTelecom's latest gambit isn't really better data, it's preventing outside researchers and journalists from confirming the accuracy of said data:

"The voluntary, AT&T and Verizon-led USTelecom idea has the potential to improve the accuracy of the FCC's data, but it appears this methodology will produce far less transparent data that cannot be systematically verified and utilized by researchers," (Derek) Turner said. "We are suspicious of the motivations of USTelecom, because their approach of using ISP-supplied address-level data is an idea its members have vigorously opposed since the FCC began collecting data."

The telecom lobby (and many industry lobbyists) enjoy this tactic where as soon as the groundswell of support reaches a certain fevered pitch, they'll push their own solution. Not because they really want to fix the problem, but because they want to pre-empt better, more transparent solutions they won't like. It's a tactic that many telecom-loyal politicians have been attempting with fake net neutrality laws designed to do one thing: pre-empt tougher, better state or federal proposals.

With $4.5 billion in new broadband subsidies on the line, politicians have ramped up the pressure on the FCC to fix the problem before doling out yet more taxpayer money. The Telecom industry, concerned about data that can further showcase telecom sector market failure, clearly hope to beat these efforts to the punch, with numerous caveats and restrictions. When I pressed USTelecom as to whether they'd support making this new data transparent to journalists, researchers, and the public, the group wouldn't answer, and would only punt to the Ajit Pai FCC:

"This is an industry-funded pilot program that the consortium will share first with the FCC when complete," a USTelecom spokesperson said. "If the FCC adopts this new approach on a national basis, they will determine data availability."

Granted if you've been paying attention at home, you'd know by now that the industry-friendly FCC's reputation for data transparency is not what you'd call stellar. So if the telecom lobby genuinely wants better broadband mapping data, that's great. But if the entire purpose of the plan is to make it harder than ever to independently confirm the industry's speed and availability claims -- or two pre-empt better plans crafted via a coalition of objective experts -- it could actually just making the country's broadband mapping problem worse.