Meinrath: Broadband access for all starts with transparent data

Pennsylvania enjoys near-universal access to reliable broadband service ... if you believe the official maps.

If you talk with rural Pennsylvanians about their broadband experiences, they may have a different perspective. Pennsylvanians too often experience spotty coverage, slow service and expensive pricing. New government funding could help; however, identifying areas that need federal funding requires access to accurate data, which is why my team published our newest broadband map, which is updated as counties release their data.

Decision makers should use every resource available to make informed choices about which communities need broadband grant funding. The federal government has allotted $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access across the country through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. Pennsylvania will likely receive over $1 billion. We need to make sure that the officials deciding how to distribute this funding use the most accurate data available.

In 2009, I and a team of network researchers created Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open-source, broadband measurement initiative that collects and makes broadband speed data freely and publicly available. M-Lab has become the go-to resource for hundreds of millions of people who want to test their broadband connection to see whether it lives up to the service level promised by internet service providers (ISPs). Today, M-Lab is the world’s largest repository of free and open broadband data, with billions of tests.

My research team at Penn State has helped develop additional tools to document discrepancies between “official” claims and broadband reality: from large-scale maps of current broadband testing results to tools to monitor the reliability of your Internet connection.

The stark differences between our assessments and the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “National Broadband Map” illustrate how problematic documenting today’s digital divides has become. For example, the FCC uses 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds and 3Mbps upload speeds to define “broadband.” That’s fine if you’re streaming a standard definition movie to one device. But if your child is watching an HD streaming movie while your spouse is on a telehealth call and you’re trying to have a professional conference call, 25/3 Mbps is going to result in many problems. Given that household Wi-Fi today serves multiple devices, anything less than 100 Mbps is underserved.

Our maps show that more than half of Pennsylvania receives residential broadband coverage below 100 Mbps, and approximately 1/4 averages less than 25 Mbps. Comparing real-world tests with the FCC’s official maps, which claim that 94% of the state receives 100 Mbps or greater service, our findings demonstrate a need for systematic assessment of the on-the-ground reality of broadband adoption.

A key problem of “official” maps is that they use data provided by ISPs – who are incentivized to overstate their speeds and service areas. When an ISP claims that an area is “served,” government support becomes unavailable.

Our data come from the 250 million broadband speed tests that American households conduct yearly — tens of millions in Pennsylvania alone — using M-Lab’s online tools. Unlike the FCC’s data, ours is open source and freely available. Broadband experts and private industry can scrutinize it.

Our newest map is a free resource and open dataset that will aid decision makers and people across the commonwealth who want to apply for federal funding to build broadband networks, helping them make the case for their grant applications. Pennsylvania also needs to invest in the research and scientific work needed to document on-the-ground broadband information that is accurate, openly accessible, and peer-reviewable.

State and federal officials must “use science” to collect accurate information that documents broadband reality. Accurate and open data will hold ISPs and government agencies accountable, and bolster efforts to achieve digital equity and universal broadband adoption across Pennsylvania and the nation.

Sascha Meinrath is the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State, co-founder of M-Lab, and director of X-Lab.