House Defers to Senate Broadband Data Bill; Final Bill Deletes Funding and National Map

Congress last week passed legislation, the "Broadband Data Improvement Act" (S. 1492) that seeks better information about high-speed Internet connections through enhanced data collection by five separate government agencies. But as passed by the Senate and the House, the bill deleted all authorization of funds - an amount that had totaled $40 million for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012 in the Senate Commerce Committee version of the legislation. Although the bill was agreed to by the House, the bill undercut many of the key features of a companion House bill, the "Broadband Census of America Act" (H.R. 3919). That bill passed the House in November 2007. It would have forced the disclosure of company-by-company broadband data. It also would have created a national broadband map under the aegis of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, with details on broadband coverage by every broadband provider at the nine-digit ZIP code level. Both features are absent in the final bill. The Commerce Department is one of several federal agencies that will now be tasked with improving national data on broadband services and utilizing that data to improve policies to enhance and expand the technological infrastructure, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Census Bureau (a nominally independent part of Commerce), the Government Accountability Office, and the Small Business Administration. The Act also changes the language of the 1996 Telecommunications Act to require the FCC conduct an "annual" - in place of a "regular" - inquiry into broadband deployment and to list of all the 5-digit ZIP codes where broadband is not available in the US. The reach of the Broadband Data Improvement Act could be global: the FCC is also directed to conduct studies on broadband services in 25 other nations and to report on difference and similarities between these nations and the US. Likewise, the Census Bureau will have to expand its studies of America's technology uses and include questions on computer ownership and broadband vs. dial-up adoption in its ongoing American Community Survey, according to the Act.