Broadband Data Improvement Act passes House and Senate

The Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492), a key initiative  of the Communications Workers of America's Speed Matters project, has cleared two important hurdles. The Senate passed the legislation on Friday and the House of Representatives passed its version of the bill yesterday. A joint conference committee will now meet to work out the differences between the bills.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, would require the Federal Communications Commission to conduct annual studies on status of broadband deployment throughout the country, in order to better assess the levels of residential computer and high-speed Internet use. It would also encourage private and public partnership efforts that identify barriers to broadband adoption on the state level.

Sen. Inouye explained the necessity of the bill:

If the United States is to remain a world leader in technology, we need a national broadband network that is second-to-none. The federal government has a responsibility to ensure the continued rollout of broadband access, as well as the successful deployment of the next generation of broadband technology. But as I have said before, we cannot manage what we do not measure. This bill will give us the baseline statistics we need in order to eventually achieve the successful deployment of broadband access and services to all Americans.

The second annual Speed Matters State-by-State report on Internet speed found that the United States had a median download speed of 2.3 mbps. Based on this data, the Communications Workers of America have repeatedly called for the passage of this bill; advocating it as the next logical step towards a national broadband policy.

Senate passes Broadband Data Improvement Act (U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation)

Senator Inouye Introduces Broadband Data Improvement Act (Speed Matters)

2008 Report on Internet Speeds in All 50 States (Speed Matters)

Communications Workers union urges Congress to move forward on broadband mapping (Speed Matters)