Broadband Data Collection Needs Improving, Panelists Say
More accurate broadband data could be useful for business and social service purposes, researchers and broadband providers said at a Progress and Freedom Foundation panel Thursday. But they disagreed on to how to improve data collection methodology to find areas of the country that do not have service. Large broadband providers such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T said they support better data collection but want to make sure their proprietary market information is protected.
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“We have to be careful with confidentiality issues,” said Beth Shiroishi, senior director of AT&T’s Regulatory Policy and Planning Division. “We strongly support the need to protect the confidentiality of data,” said Joseph Waz, Comcast vice president for public policy. Studies that can discover areas of the country that do not have broadband could be helpful, he said, but Congress and public policymakers should think about ways to increase broadband penetration without “raising taxes or raiding” the Universal Service Fund. As for cable modem, Waz said, “we can’t provision it fast enough.”
AT&T wants to find out why people who could get broadband do not yet subscribe, Shiroishi said. While broadband availability might be high -- AT&T expects to have full deployment by the end of the year -- the “take rate” is only around 40 to 45 percent, she said.
A third-party data collection effort such as the Connect Kentucky model is a worthy idea policymakers should consider for improving data collection, Shiroishi said. The state effort, which is now expanding nationwide, created a map that identified where broadband service existed and how many subscribers were using it. The public-private effort granted participating companies confidentiality in exchange for sharing detailed market information -- one of the keys to the program’s success, said Laura Taylor, Connect Kentucky vice president of research. AT&T would like to use such data to target markets so it can get more computers into homes and educate consumers about services they might not know about, Shiroishi said.
Comcast supports the concept of improved broadband data, but suggested collection efforts be put into context. “What problem are we trying to solve?” asked Comcast’s Waz. Policymakers and academics should focus on two questions, he said. (1) Are Americans getting access to high-speed broadband services? (2) Are they buying the services? Comcast supports proposals that would require data collection to be aggregated by nine-digit ZIP codes, which researchers say would narrow information to 10 households as opposed to 3,700 for a five-digit ZIP code.
The impetus for the debate was discussion of potential Capitol Hill action on a broadband data mapping bill. Senator Daniel Inouye’s, D-Hawaii, measure proposes a methodology that has the support of the cable industry, but it is not a bipartisan bill yet since Senator Ted Stevens, R- Alaska, has declined to endorse it. Panelists said there is political interest in a data collection bill, but the $40 million price tag on the proposed legislation might be a deterrent. Meanwhile, the Center for Public Integrity said it is close to resolution of a Freedom of Information Request Act suit against the FCC seeking access to the agency’s database on companies that provide high-speed Internet, organized by ZIP code.