Broadband Mapping Fiasco

I was on a conference call with the State of Nebraska broadband mapping contractors and the Public Service Commission this morning and came away with a bad feeling.

Based on the Form477 data, and the PSC’s broadband provider registration information, there are 283 broadband providers in the state of Nebraska.  But they only have complete information for about 25, and signed NDAs from only 160.   I offered to them that they would have better luck getting data if they weren’t asking for so much information.    The data template that they ask for includes:

1)  All subscriber addresses, and the type of broadband deployed at that location
2)  GPS coordinates for all of our tower locations, the types of antennas provided and the frequencies in use at that location
3)  Key “anchor institutions” that are receiving service from our system

I have had a couple of phone calls and several emails back and forth with the mapping subcontractors, and they (and the PSC) are still adamant about the data collection requirements.   I thought that we had negotiated to the point that they would accept a shape file and a summary of the number of subscribers per census block, but the phone call this morning confirmed that incomplete data submissions (ones that do not include the tower verification information and subscriber information in the format that they requested) will not be included in the summary data, or the state broadband availability map that will be released to the public.

The contractors and the attorney for the PSC gave the indication that the NTIA is mandating this level of data collection, and that their NDA should be enough protection to ensure the safety of our proprietary information.   My position, and the position of the majority of WISP operators that I have visited with, is that I am not going to turn over the information that they are asking for.   Full disclosure of all my tower sites and the addresses of my customers is an onerous request and fundamentally unnecessary to determine where broadband coverage exists within the state.   I would prefer to run the risk of being overbuilt by a government funded program in the future than to turn over information to entities (NTIA in particular) that could be legally obligated to turn over that information through a FOIA request.

I don’t know whether it is too late to push back at the NTIA to reduce the data that they are requesting.   I can sympathise to a certain degree with the PSC and the contractors, as they are just trying to collect the data that NTIA has mandated them to collect.  But they are simply asking for too much information.   The broadband mapping program as currently constructed will be another inaccurate representation of broadband coverage and that information will be used to develop policy and programs that will make the competitive environment for WISPs and other independent ISPs even more difficult to succeed in.   That sucks.