Larry Strickling Says Now is a 'New Era' for Public Broadband Data from Carriers

Speaking at the Virginia Summit on Broadband Access at the Piedmont Virginia Community College, Larry Strickling, the top official at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said that now is "a new era" for broadband data, including public data about carriers that provide high-speed Internet service. He said that he hoped and expected that carriers will allow information about the areas in which they serve to be made publicly available, as they do in Canada. Strickling also said that broadband incumbents that seek to challenge broadband applicants who argue that their areas are "underserved" will have to make such information public - and in the same format as the broadband data collection efforts underway nationwide. "We need the data: I think it is a national imperative in which this data be collected," said Strickling, responding to a question about whether carriers will in fact provide states with the information necessary to create state-level broadband maps.