On Friday the US Commerce Department announced that providers do not have to divulge information on specific broadband connections or how much money they make from each Internet subscriber. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Internet providers won’t be asked to turn over the location and strength of their central network connections to subscriber homes and businesses. They will, however, be required to give information about connections from central areas to the main Internet arteries.”

Apparently this is the upshot of negotiations with the big providers. The reasoning is that this should make it easier to get info from the providers and broadband mapping will subsequently be quicker.

The reaction to the change has been varied. According to an article in Yahoo! Tech, Joel Kelsey, a telecom policy analyst at Consumers Union, a watchdog group, said, “The government gave a lot and received very, very little in return.” While, “Larry Landis, an Indiana utility regulatory commissioner and chairman of the federal-state group that will map high-speed Internet availability, praised the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration for being flexible”