Thanks to Christopher Mitchell of ILSR for sending me the final link to SF 2866 – the Minnesota Senate Broadband Inventory Project. The plan is to move ahead with broadband mapping. They want to track (by November 1, 2008):
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minimum and maximum upload and download speeds at a local government unit or level.
And produce maps that clearly convey:
- areas unserved by any broadband provider;
- areas served by a single broadband provider;
- areas served by multiple broadband providers;
- available upstream and downstream transmission speeds at the county level of detail
- the types of technology used to provide broadband service.
Broadband providers must provide info requested. I won’t say much more. I have posted thoughts on the mapping in earlier posts.
Perhaps I’m wrong here, but can’t the state get that information from the FCC?
I have had to file the dreaded FCC Form 477 – Local Telephone Competition & Broadband Reporting – for several years running now. It sounds like a perfect match for the information required to map broadband deployments.
I’m commenting here if only to plead for non-duplication of paperwork at the federal and state levels. I can’t help but imagine yet another endless spreadsheet that will ask for data that already exists (assuming other providers were filing as already required). As a provider it was always my opinion that the time spent reporting, and filing for our government could be better spent planning, researching, and mapping out our own future offerings.
Zach,
I think that’s a great question. I know that there have been complaints about how the FCC tracks data – but what little I know about the State’s method, it doesn’t seem significantly different.
One of the first things I learned in library school was to be wary of any reference book that gets the information straight from the horse’s mouth. I think of my own driver’s license, which may or may not bear an exact resemblance to the truth. And in fairness, the information I provided two years ago may have been true then but that was several cookies ago.
The same is true to getting info from the provider. Their situations change too. The answers will defer depending on whom in the office gets the survey. And you’re right – providers can be spending all of their time on surveys.
So, I’m afraid I don’t have a good response except to say again – that’s a great question.
Thanks! Ann
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