Apparently it took a government agency--the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, known to most as the NTIA--to determine that broadband is lacking in rural areas. The agency did so by developing what the NCTA has labeled "Version 1.0" of a National Broadband Map of Internet availability that will show where broadband is and isn't (rural areas?) available in the U.S.
"We need better data on America's broadband Internet capabilities in order to improve them," said Acting Commerce Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank in a news release that unveiled the map.
Even with the map, there's still a need for better data, said Rick Chessen, the NCTA's senior vice president of Law & Regulatory Policy in a blog where he suggested that the map be labeled "Version 1.0."
"Acknowledging that this is the first step in an ongoing iterative process is in no way a criticism of NTIA or the state mapping entities--it is simply the inevitable byproduct of a massive, first-of-its-kind data collection effort," Chessen concluded.
For more:
- see the NTIA news release
- CableTechTalk has this post
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