Revised Broadband Data Collection Will Separate Residential, Business Connections

The March order narrowed broadband data collection to the census tract level from 5-digit ZIP codes. But even though commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein approved, both Democrats condemned the order for not also requiring carriers to separate business and residential users at the census tract level. They applauded Thursday’s revision. “Without this fundamental change,” said Adelstein, “the usefulness of the improvements we made in March would have been severely compromised.”

The reconsideration order credits a May 13 meeting with AT&T and Free Press as effecting the change. “Those parties proposed an approach that, subject to certain assumptions, would enable reporting of the percentage of residential broadband connections at the Census Tract level,” the FCC said. “We find that proposed approach reasonable, and therefore adopt such a requirement.”

The new requirement applies to wired, terrestrial fixed wireless and satellite broadband. The FCC exempted mobile wireless broadband, which the FCC’s March order said would continue reporting only the connections they provide in individual states. Neither the order nor the reconsideration exempts small carriers that complained that more detailed data collection would be burdensome. Such an exemption would deprive the FCC and others of “adequate information on broadband deployment and adoption in rural, unserved, and underserved areas of the nation, the areas where additional information is most needed and would be likely to have the greatest impact,” the FCC said.

The requirement could pose problems for rural carriers, said Steve Pastorkovich, business development director for the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, in an interview. For example, many rural telecom customers are family farms that use broadband for home and business, he said. Telecommuters, also prevalent in rural areas, represent another gray area, he said. OPASTCO members don’t want to “pry” into customers’ lives to find out how to classify them, he said. However, if the FCC requires only carriers’ “best guess,” OPASTCO can live with the rule, he said.

More, Better Data

The March order creates several new avenues for data collection. The FCC will design and implement a process by which households may voluntarily report broadband availability, type and speed, the agency said. Households can send the FCC data using telephone, mail, e-mail or the Internet, the FCC said. The FCC will share the information with public-private partnerships and the U.S. Agriculture Department Rural Development Agency, it said. Opening another stream, the FCC will ask the Census Bureau to collect data on household broadband availability and subscription, it said.

Interconnected VoIP carriers must start reporting data, including subscriber numbers and percentage of residential customers, the FCC said. VoIP carriers must also report whether they or another company provide the broadband on which the VoIP service is riding. “We do not believe it is possible to obtain an accurate view of the U.S. voice service market without gathering data about interconnected VoIP service subscribers,” the FCC said. The FCC also amended mobile broadband reporting requirements, requiring providers to report the number of subscribers whose data plans let them browse the open Internet.

The VON Coalition applauded the VoIP requirement. “Better data should be able to help [the FCC] better understand that there are barriers that are slowing VoIP- driven benefits from reaching consumers,” said Jim Kohlenberg, VON Coalition executive director. “Too often, the Commission’s VoIP orders have done a poor job at recognizing the inherent technological and operational differences between fixed and network independent nomadic forms of VoIP.”

The order also requires more detailed data. The FCC will assess broadband speed tiers every two years, the FCC said. In March, the FCC replaced the 200 kbps definition for minimum broadband speed with a tiered system that includes upload and download information. The agency considered a system that adjusted tiers automatically but decided such a mechanism was “likely impracticable” since it’s hard to anticipate “all possible future technological changes,” it said.

The FCC considered collecting data by 9-digit ZIP code, but decided census tracts would “provide more useful information for our policy purposes,” the agency said: “Census-based units are more stable and static than ZIP codes and thus will enable the Commission to measure change over time more effectively.” Also, census-based units are more confidential, correspond better to actual locations and can be tied to demographic data, it said. In contrast, “ZIP Codes are designed… to deliver efficiently the nation’s mail.”

Rejecting 9-Digit ZIP codes was a good move because using them would have been burdensome for carriers, Pastorkovich said. But the “jury’s still out” on census tracts, he said. OPASTCO members don’t use census tracts in billing systems, and will have to implement them, he said. Still, he applauded the FCC’s “honest effort to strike a balance.” AT&T didn’t have reservations about the revision. “Expanding the data collection process by requiring carriers to report data at the census tract level will provide the commission with a wealth of demographic data with which to analyze broadband deployment trends in the United States,” a spokesman said.

A further notice seeks comment on developing a “nationwide broadband availability mapping program,” the FCC said. The agency wants more information on broadband pricing and how to improve gathering of broadband service availability. Also, the FCC seeks comment on whether to require Form 477 filers to report the number of voice telephone service connections, how to go about broadband surveys, and how to keep Form 477 information confidential.

Free Press praised the data collection orders released Thursday. “This is one of those rare instances where reason, logic and the desire to act in the public interest triumphed over the narrow special interests of big business,” said Research Director Derek Turner.

OECD Rankings Disputed

The FCC disputed the OECD’s system for ranking countries on broadband. In its fifth advanced services report, the FCC said broadband is “being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” despite the U.S.’s 15th place broadband ranking on the last OECD report. The FCC explained: “While the OECD ranking is commonly cited, a more fully developed picture of broadband markets would provide a more accurate and useful international comparison.”

The OECD study doesn’t “account for differences in geography and population distribution,” the FCC said. Those factors “can affect the cost of deployment and thus the take- up rate,” it said. Also, the U.S. has multi-platform competition, unlike most of the countries OECD ranks, the FCC said. Finally, OECD “overlooks… broadband usage outside of the home, such as Wi-Fi hot spots, or broadband access via 3G mobile technologies,” the FCC said.

Free Press is “astonished that the FCC could paint Congress such a rosy picture,” Turner said. “The commission was presented with hundreds of pages of irrefutable data from consumer groups and others showing that millions of Americans have little choice in the broadband market.” Broadband prices are too high, and many people don’t have access, he said. “We hope that future FCC broadband reports focus less on myth and more on reality.”