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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), with the cosponsorship of Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), introduced today the Broadband Data Improvement Act, S. 1492, which seeks to improve the quality of federal broadband data collection and encourages state initiatives that promote broadband deployment.
“The first step in an improved broadband policy is ensuring that we have better data on which to build our efforts,” said Chairman Inouye. “In a digital age, the world will not wait for us. It is imperative that we get our broadband house in order and our communications policy right. But we cannot manage what we do not measure.”
The Broadband Data Improvement Act specifically would:
- Direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reevaluate its current 200 kilobit broadband standard. It also would require the FCC to create a new metric known as “second generation broadband” to be used to reflect network connections capable of reliably transmitting high-definition video content.
- Direct broadband providers to report broadband availability and second generation broadband connections within 9-digit zip code areas.
- Direct the FCC to conduct inquiries into the deployment of advanced telecommunications services on an annual, rather than periodic, basis.
- Direct the Census Bureau to include a question in its American Community Survey that assesses levels of residential computer use and dial-up versus broadband Internet subscribership.
- Direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to develop broadband metrics that may be used to provide consumers with broadband connection cost and capability information and improve the process of comparing the deployment and penetration of broadband in the United States with other countries.
- Direct the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy to conduct a study evaluating the impact of broadband speed and price on small businesses.
· Authorize a 5-year, $40 million per year program that would provide matching grants to State non-profit, public-private partnerships in support of efforts to more accurately identify barriers to broadband adoption throughout the State.
Chairman Inouye’s full statement follows. The bill is attached.
“Broadband communications are quickly becoming the great economic engine of our time. Broadband deployment drives opportunities for business, education, and healthcare. It provides widespread access to information that can change the way we communicate with one another and improve the quality of our lives. From our smallest rural hamlets to our largest urban centers, communities across this country should have access to the opportunities ubiquitous broadband can bring. The state of our broadband union should be broadband for all.
But the news on this front is not all good. Last month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that the United States has fallen to fifteenth in the world in broadband penetration. In some Asian and European countries, households have high-speed connections that are twenty times faster than ours—for half the cost. While some will debate what, in fact, these rankings measure, one thing that cannot be debated is the fact that we continue to fall precipitously down the list. In 2000 the United States ranked fourth; last year we dropped to twelfth; and just last month we dropped to fifteenth. The broadband bottom line is that too many of our international counterparts are passing us by. For this we are paying a price. Some experts estimate that universal broadband adoption would add $500 billion to the U. S. economy and create more than a million new jobs.
In a digital age, the world will not wait for us. It is imperative that we get our broadband house in order and our communications policy right. But we cannot manage what we do not measure. So the first step in an improved broadband policy is ensuring that we have better data on which to build our efforts.
That is why I am here today to introduce the Broadband Data Improvement Act. This legislation will improve the quality of federal and state data regarding the availability of broadband service. This, in turn, can be used to craft policies that will increase the availability of affordable broadband service in all parts of the nation. This legislation will improve broadband data collection at the Federal Communications Commission and Bureau of the Census. It will direct the Comptroller General and the Small Business Administration to study our broadband challenge. It will encourage state initiatives to improve broadband adoption by establishing a state broadband data and development grant program that will authorize $40 million for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012.
With too many of our industrial counterparts ahead of us, we sorely need the kind of granular data that will inform our policies and propel us to the front of the broadband ranks. I believe that the Broadband Data Improvement Act will give us the tools to make this happen.
I ask unanimous consent that the full text of this bill be printed in the Record.”
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