Thanks to Mary Ann Van Cura for sending me an article on the FCC recent report on broadband (The FCC’s Rose-Colored Broadband Glasses).

I have to quote the article directly because the author is so eloquent:

It’s that time of year again; time for the FCC to release U.S. broadband data that’s about as reliable as a heroin addict in charge of your retirement funds. Despite years of criticism from everyone from consumer advocates to the GAO, the FCC continues to insist that if one home in a zip-code has broadband, that zip code is wired for service. The FCC also insists that anything over 200kbps is broadband. Collectively, this methodology makes the state of the broadband union look rosy.

The FCC report (released Oct 31, 2007) tracks Internet service offerings and types of customers as reported by providers until December 31, 2006. Here are some quick facts from the report:

High-speed lines increased by 27% during the second half of 2006, from 65.0 million to 82.5 million lines in service, following a 27% increase, from 51.2 million to 65.0 million lines, during the first half of 2006.

Of the 82.5 million total high-speed lines reported as of December 31, 2006, 58.2 million served primarily residential end users.

Cable modem service represented 53.6% of these lines while 39.1% were asymmetric DSL (ADSL) connections, 0.2% were symmetric DSL (SDSL) or traditional wireline connections, 1.3% were fiber connections to the end user premises, and 5.8% used other types of technology
including satellite, terrestrial fixed or mobile wireless (on a licensed or unlicensed basis), and electric power line.

Advanced services lines, which deliver services at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in both directions, increased by 17% during the second half of 2006, from 50.8 million to 59.5 million, compared to a 16% increase, from 43.9 million to 50.8 million lines, during the first half of 2006.

Providers list the Zip Codes in which they have at least one high-speed connection in service to an end user, and over 99% of Zip Codes were listed by at least one provider. Our analysis indicates that more than 99% of the nation’s population lives in those Zip Codes. The most widely reported technologies by this measure were satellite (with at least some presence reported in 91% of Zip Codes), ADSL (in 84% of Zip Codes), and cable modem (in 65% of Zip Codes). ADSL and/or cable modem
connections were reported to be present in 90% of Zip Codes.

Back to the article – they wisely brought up the advantage this reporting brings to the current broadband providers. It makes it look as if the US is covered and – as if everything is rosy. For those of us city dwellers zip codes may be a good way of judging access (or it may not) but for rural areas it’s ridiculous. Zip codes just cover too much darned area to be representative.

The unfortunate thing is that this data is used to make policy decisions and no matter which side of the fence you live – it has to make sense that better info would make for better decisions. Recently they did decide to improve the quality of the reporting – I wonder when we’ll start seeing those reports.