NTIA Releases National Map of Broadband Data
For years, Speed Matters and its partners have advocated for a comprehensive national broadband map, and that hard work has finally borne fruit. On February 17, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a national broadband map of the United States. Speed Matters lobbied for legislation mandating the creation of a national broadband map, and then for funding the map in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This new data set and its corresponding map will be an invaluable resource as lawmakers and regulators make future policy decisions based on which communities already have broadband and which areas need it.
The data is available publicly, and people are able to see the state of broadband in the United States as a whole, as well as in their own communities. The map contains over 25 million pieces of data and is the most granular study of broadband in the United States ever assembled. Users can focus on an area as small as an individual census block. People are able to input their address and receive a list of the broadband providers in their area, with contact links if they are available. The map is searchable not only by geographic area, but in other ways too, such as the technology and speed available. What's very exciting is that because the raw data is available, outside groups will be able to create new tools with it, and combine it with other data to get a more complete picture of the state of broadband throughout the United States.
The data was compiled state-by-state by several third parties, including Speed Matters partner Connected Nation, and submitted to the NTIA for aggregation and final processing. Funding is already in place so mapping data will continue to be collected and updated for five years. Further, the NTIA was able to release the map on time, and under budget. Any leftover funding will be given to states to expand existing broadband capacity.
This map was put together in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and specifically measures where broadband Internet is available. For a map of actual speeds experienced by Internet users in your area, check out the Speed Matters annual Report on Internet Speeds in All 50 States. And to help contribute to next year's Speed Matters report, please take our speed test.
Broadband maps at Connected Nation
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