Telecom Groups Protest US Commerce Dept Internet Data Requests [Dow Jones Newswire]
Congress mandated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was passed earlier this year, that the Department of Commerce begin a process to map the availability of broadband across the nation. The Department of Commerce recently released a set of rules to the states for the mapping process that details the broadband data that the government wants to collect. That data not only includes broadband availability and speeds, but the locations of the infrastructure that provides the broadband service. For cable operators, that means sending the government the location of cable headends and cable nodes.
Several telecom industry associations have sent a letter to Assistant Secretary of Commerce Larry Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration within the Department of Commerce, requesting that certain portions of the rules be modified to maintain the confidentiality of sensitive company data. The government has indicated that there are some confidentiality protections for the data, but they're not iron clad, the data is, of course, designed to be given to the public in the form of a broadband availability map. The industry associations rightly contend that such a map can be developed without releasing the location of every piece of equipment in a provider's network. Providers are concerned that if the network infrastructure data were to become public, it could lead to competitive disadvantages or create national security concerns.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which represents cable providers like Insight, has opted against signing on to the letter that the other industry associations have sent to Assistant Secretary Strickling, but instead decided to participate in meetings between Strickling and the other associations in an attempt to strike a compromise that address the concerns. Meanwhile they are allowing the sharing of data that will help the government and the American people know exactly where broadband is and where it isn't. In addition to the mapping effort, Congress created a $7.2 billion broadband infrastructure grant program in the Recovery Act, and knowing where broadband is not currently available should be the top factor in where the government decides to award those grant monies. Hopefully most of the money will be spent to bring service to areas that lack any broadband access rather than spending it on areas that already have it.
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