WASHINGTON - JUNE 29 - The Center for Public Integrity’s efforts to ensure that government information about broadband deployment is made available to the public have created considerable interest among industry players and associations seeking to block access to broadband records based on competitive concerns.
Since filing its Sept. 25, 2006
lawsuit , the Center has sought to make data about broadband companies publicly available through its “Well Connected”
Media Tracker
, a free, Internet-based database of television, radio, newspaper and cable companies searchable by ZIP code. The suit seeks to obtain an FCC database of broadband companies that provide high-speed Internet and the ZIP codes in which they operate so citizens have a better understanding of who they can turn to for high-speed access.
“Public identification of the areas in which companies provide broadband service would enhance citizens' understanding of their options for high-speed access,” said Drew Clark, senior fellow and “Well Connected” project manager. “Releasing information about the ZIP codes in which companies offer service would not cause competitive harm.”
The Center helped organize a June 28
conference
on broadband issues that brought together major industry players, including
AT&T
,
Comcast
,
Verizon Communications
, a small rural wireless Internet service provider, and leading academics and nonprofit experts.
Efforts to make broadband data public have led other government, non-profit and business-led efforts into the debate. The FCC is currently reconsidering its data-collection policies for broadband, while agencies such as the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also are considering getting involved. Last month, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, introduced the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492) requiring the
FCC
to supplement the information it currently collects about broadband deployment with more localized data, including ZIP code plus four digits. It also calls for the creation of online maps revealing the availability of high-speed Internet services.
Similar draft legislation was released in May by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, requiring the NTIA to create and publicize a nationwide map featuring broadband provider's service locations that could be searched in detail.
On June 12, the Center filed its final reply brief addressing the FCC's rebuttal arguments. If the Center's lawsuit is successful, the names of every broadband company will be included in the Media Tracker, searchable by ZIP code, alongside those companies that provide television, radio, cable and newspapers.
# # #
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan independent Washington, D.C.-based organization that does investigative reporting and research on significant public issues. Since 1990, the Center has released more than 400 investigative reports and 17 books. It has received the prestigious George Polk Award and more than 22 other national journalism awards and 16 finalist nominations from national organizations, including PEN USA and Investigative Reporters and Editors. In April 2006, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized the Center with a national award for excellence in online public service journalism for the fifth consecutive year. In October 2006, the Center was honored with the Online News Association’s coveted General Excellence Award. In March 2007, the Center was given a special citation for the body of its investigative work from the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
###
Printer Friendly Version
E-Mail This Article
