The government is using the wrong data to make crucial decisions about the internet

High-speed internet is not really available where the government says it is. And that misinformation means that a lot of Americans, especially those in poor and rural areas, can’t get access to broadband — a service that is becoming more and more integral to daily life in the US. “Currently in the US, the focus is upon physical infrastructure, not upon people choosing to subscribe or being able to subscribe,” said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit advocating for national broadband access. Broadband usage data from Microsoft — which was released late in 2018 and is based on anonymous data the company collected on how fast its products were actually being used and updated — paints a much bleaker picture. Microsoft’s data says 163 million people don’t use high-speed internet in the US, while the Federal Communications Commission estimates that it’s not available to 25 million Americans. That’s a difference of 138 million people — more than a third of the US population.

“There’s a lot of money tied to this data,” said Kathryn de Wit, manager of the broadband research initiative for Pew Charitable Trusts. “If a community is considered served, in many cases they’re no longer eligible to receive funding. If you have an inaccurate picture of what connectivity looks like at the block level, you may be passing over communities that really do need connectivity.” ISPs currently fill out a document twice a year called Form 477, which provides the basis for the government’s broadband maps. “We’ve known Form 477 sucked for the better part of a couple years now,” said Christopher Ali, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and a research fellow at the Benton Foundation. “But this is the tension between industry and regulation, and industry is winning, to the detriment of rural America.”