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New Data for the National Broadband Map

March 02, 2012 by Anne Neville, Director of NTIA’s State Broadband Initiative
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Just over a year ago, we unveiled the National Broadband Map – an unprecedented, interactive map that shows what high-speed Internet services are available in the United States. Powered by a searchable database of more than 20 million records, the map is the most extensive set of U.S. broadband availability data ever published. Our partners in the states collect new data every six months from nearly 1,800 broadband providers nationwide. Just as we did last September, today we are again updating the map with the latest information.

The map has proven a valuable tool to a wide range of stakeholders, including consumers, researchers, policymakers, local planning officials, and application developers. Broadband drives economic growth and innovation – including advances in health care, education, and public safety – so data on America’s broadband capabilities is of increasing importance, especially as we work to close the digital divide.

Our goal remains to provide the most accurate information available. To make this possible, states are using a variety of best practices to validate data before providing it for the map. For example, the Missouri team uses a combination of techniques, including hitting the road to verify infrastructure, and comparing information supplied by broadband providers to third-party datasets, public data, and surveys the team conducts throughout the state. Utah uses similar methods, and has also conducted 9,300 miles of drive tests over in order to assess and validate mobile broadband availability and performance.

You can help too: our crowdsourcing feature enables you to confirm the accuracy of data or let us know if you spot an error. Just type in an address into the search bar and then select “expand all” to see your options for providing feedback. We pass this information back to the states to help with future data collections.

As always, we are interested in how the map is used – and sometimes it is in practical ways that we hadn’t even imagined. Let us know about your experience.

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The map is unbearably slow,

Submitted on July 23, 2012.
The map is unbearably slow, and doesn't work at any zoom level except national. Therefore it is useless. I wish it was built as an overlay to Google maps. This is yet another waste of taxpayer money, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

National Broadband Map

Submitted on July 23, 2012.
National Broadband Map (broadbandmap.gov) is bad. Here's why: 1. It's way too slow. 2. When I zoom in, all shading disappears. In other words it shows nothing unless I'm at the full national scale. 3. When I change themes it goes back to national scale. This is also useless since I am only interested in my own city and have to keep zooming back in. 4. I can't look up providers in my area. THAT would be useful. Not to mention a "compare" tool. Why can't you just overlay the data onto a Google Map? That would make it actually useful instead of the junk it currently is.

We are a rural WISP in NE

Submitted on July 14, 2012.
We are a rural WISP in NE Oregon, and have submitted our coverage area data numerous times to both the Oregon Cubconnects (where it IS finally listed), and to this site. We are still not listed. Now, Frontier is getting my tax money to build DSL out under our coverage area. We easily surpass the FCC definition of broadband, offering 8-12Mb speeds over several hundred square miles, using dozens of tower sites. We're a registered CLEC, are pulling fiber, and are doing just fine without government handouts. All infrastructure is funded by SAVING and REINVESTING the money in our network. Why does Frontier need a handout?

Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted on August 12, 2012.
Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tried accessing the National

Submitted on March 17, 2012.
Tried accessing the National Broadband Map, but the links crashed my browser (Firefox 11.0) each time. The idea is great; I'd like to compare ISPs in my area.

Data on the web site appears

Submitted on March 12, 2012.
Data on the web site appears to be as of June 2011. Is this correct or has it been updated?

When will we be able to

Submitted on March 02, 2012.
When will we be able to select an area of the map and view which providers are available in the area? I tried your provider look up but needed to know they were there instead of the map showing me. You should make sure to produce a product usable by the general population. This does not appear to meet the communities needs.

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