Imagine if you drove down to your local credit union this morning to find the doors padlocked and an ominous sign taped across the front door: “Closed for Anti-Competitive Business Practices.”  Then you return your books on loan from the public library, but find the same padlock and sign on that building, too.  Scratching your head, you then drive home vowing to get to the bottom of this only to be greeted by the mailman, who hands you a letter from your daughter’s school announcing steep and immediate tuition increases required to cover surprising new expenses.

As you try and understand what exactly has happened, it all becomes clear when you switch on the evening news — the Republicans in Wisconsin have launched their version of a “revolution,” — one that originally promised to “restore fiscal sanity,” but instead looks more and more like a statewide pilot project run by the Ayn Rand Institute, with the financial backing of AT&T.

In the fight for better broadband, normally the bad actors can be easily identified and called out from both political parties.  Democrats and Republicans turn campaign contributions and promises of power and influence into favorable, often custom-dictated legislative proposals that come straight from the companies that will benefit the most.  But the last six months of Republican rule in Wisconsin cannot be compared with anything else that has come before.  It’s a wholesale sellout to AT&T, and even statewide protests and media coverage on a massive scale appears to have only delivered a temporary reprieve, with strings attached.  What’s worse, even after the massive call-out against the telecom overreach, some of the proponents of broadband slash and burn politics are completely unrepentant, vowing to try again, perhaps when the public isn’t paying attention.

While some educational institutions believe any deal is better than no deal with the state’s ideologues, they will do themselves no favor if they drop the issue after the “compromise” is reached.  This all-out “war on broadband” cannot be appeased while AT&T’s true believers remain in office.

Let’s catch up.

In the last 48 hours, an ongoing series of “discussions” about the ultimate fate of WiscNet, Wisconsin’s institutional broadband cooperative network, have brought some assurances the network will not have to close its doors, at least not yet.  Yesterday, AT&T’s meddling to make changes to the “compromise” was on display, and one should never underestimate the cleverness of this company at finding ways to tie the hands of its targets with innocuous-looking legislative language.  Those stealthy last-minute additions can deliver a powerful sting only realized later, after the bill becomes law.

Angry phone calls pounded legislators in Madison, as did many newspaper editorials, TV news coverage (which we will review below), and a lobbying counterattack by librarians and educators all working to stop AT&T from winning an all out victory.  But make no mistake, this battle is by no means over.

For at least two years, WiscNet appears to have won the basic right to continue to exist, but only under a form of big government supervision.

The provision to ban award recipients from accepting broadband stimulus money from the federal government has been dropped.  Telecom industry lobbyists fought hard to get Wisconsin to virtually return federal stimulus money awarded to public broadband projects by trying to prohibit winners from accepting the checks.  Tens of millions already allocated to the University of Wisconsin would have had to be forfeit.  Instead, the changes worked out this week allow the university to use those funds to build and expand WiscNet to more state schools, libraries and public buildings.

Few legislators would openly admit trying to utterly destroy WiscNet, instead preferring “death by a thousand cuts,” writing rules and regulations that threaten the viability of the network’s ability to conduct operations.  While most of the onerous provisions were turned back, including those that would ban participation in Internet2 and limit WiscNet’s expansion, the compromise forces the network to face additional auditing and scrutiny by committed opponents to public broadband.

WiscNet put on a brave face, releasing the following statement:

We welcome an objective review of the relationship between the University of Wisconsin and WiscNet, a nonprofit cooperative.  The amendment allows the University of Wisconsin to continue as full members of WiscNet for the next two years, while the review helps everyone understand these issues better.  We look forward to a healthy dialogue with legislators, telecommunications providers, community partners, and others.  We are confident that those open lines of communication will be fruitful.

Don’t count on it.  Having followed these legislative battles for the past several years, one thing is certain: AT&T and their industry friends like Access Wisconsin will be back to try again and again and again.  As long as the current legislature includes members who are not only amenable to AT&T’s world views, but openly espouse them (and occasionally exceed them), WiscNet and public broadband in general is hardly safe.

Let’s remember who and what we are dealing with here:

The War on Broadband: At the core of the Republicans’ argument against public or institutional broadband is that it competes unfairly (somehow) against private corporate providers.  That argument ignores the fact WiscNet, among many other public and institutional networks, is essentially a cooperative, and one that existed long before phone and cable companies got into the Internet Service Provider business themselves.  Members pool resources to sustain a service that first and foremost delivers benefits to its users, not to external banks or investors.  Many institutional networks like WiscNet might even be compared to credit unions, delivering service to a pre-determined constituency that also happens to have a voice in how that network is run.

There are big banks and their supporters who detest credit unions because they represent “unfair competition” for them, because they can afford to deliver more service for less money.  It’s a familiar argument when you listen to some Republican senators in Wisconsin argue that the very existence of WiscNet represents anti-competitive behavior, harming fellow networks like Badgernet (another state institutional network).  It should not be a surprise to our readers to learn Badgernet is a network largely serviced by AT&T, and charges radically higher prices for its service because of what the phone company charges them for access.

The conservative movement in Wisconsin has been largely content dismissing broadband support in Wisconsin as a luxury perk, despite the fact the state scores 43rd out of the 50 best-wired states.  In addition to the purposeful distortions coming from those opposing networks like WiscNet, some have been reduced to arguing academia simply wants these networks for fast access to porn and copyrighted content.

Can Wisconsin afford their asking price?

“Help” from Dollar-A-Holler Mouthpieces like Access Wisconsin: This group, funded by the commercial telecommunications companies it represents at the expense of ordinary consumers, claims it is a helper in delivering an improved broadband experience in Wisconsin.  So helpful, in fact, it joined with AT&T and the state Republicans in calling for federal broadband stimulus money to be returned and not spent in the state for improved service.  While Access Wisconsin attacks government subsidies it doesn’t like, its member companies run to the bank with over $90 million annually in federally-mandated Universal Service payments.  The group is even upset the University of Wisconsin didn’t use state-based providers and contractors to build their expanded fiber network.  That comes as little surprise considering the University reached out to several of Access Wisconsin’s member companies (and AT&T) and found none interested in helping out.

The War on Libraries, Schools, and Taxpayers: The proposed cuts in library spending are deemed so dire by many patrons, they have begun to suspect the Republican majority would rather see people buy books at Wal-Mart than check them out for free at the town library.  On top of the budget cuts, broadband costs for schools and libraries would explode if these institutions were forced to buy access from Badgernet.

The party of “fiscal sanity” supported killing off cost-effective, money-saving broadband from WiscNet to fulfill a rigid ideological framework that would ultimately deliver less service for a lot more money.

Let’s compare prices for a moment.  Badgernet, which gets wholesale access from AT&T, charges prices that are far higher than WiscNet charges.  Badgernet itself is not the problem, its wholesale supplier is.  To defray the costs, the state of Wisconsin subsidizes Badgernet to the tune of nearly $17 million annually, to keep prices affordable for libraries and schools.  That $17 million effectively goes straight into AT&T’s bank account.  But that subsidy only gets you so far.  Badgernet charges $6,000 a month for 100Mbps service because that is the price required to recover costs charged by AT&T.  Many institutions rapidly outgrow this level of service and can upgrade to 1,000Mbps service, so long as they have a spare $49,500 a month laying around for broadband.

In contrast, clients on WiscNet can purchase 1,000Mbps service for about $10,000 a year.  Is that price disparity worth raising a ruckus over?  Apparently so.

The AT&T Dilemma: While AT&T did not win everything it wanted this year, prior evidence shows the company will be back to try again, just as it did with its statewide video franchising legislation that was supposed to deliver a competitive market for cable in the state.  In fact, it delivered higher prices instead.  Negotiating defensively with companies like this assures a war of attrition, as public providers find themselves compromising away core features of their network to protect whatever is left.

A much better idea for Wisconsin broadband is to launch an all-out counteroffensive.  Instead of stalemate compromises that constrain public networks, let’s demand they expand.  If there can be a co-op for dairy products and a credit union for banking, there certainly can be a community broadband cooperative that delivers service not just to institutions, but to members of the public and any independent provider who wants access — publicly owned for the public good.  That may not be WiscNet, designed under an institutional model, but it certainly need not be yet another overpriced offering from AT&T.

Before that can happen, Wisconsin residents need a cleanup — an upgrade — of the caliber of elected officials working on their behalf.  Thus far, a good percentage of Wisconsin’s current majority party seems far more interested in turning the state into a corporate lab experiment of their version of the free market done their way — for their benefit, at your expense.  The proof was at hand this week when the state nearly adopted a “cost saving” measure for broadband that would have cost Wisconsin taxpayers considerably more, all for the benefit of a handful of telecom companies.  Let’s help those legislators find a new day job sooner rather than later.

After that, WiscNet needs a legislative advocate of its own to introduce measures that undo the damage and then build on WiscNet’s success by expanding its reach and keeping it affordable.

Timeline: Tracking Wisconsin’s Awakening of the Wisconsin Republicans’ Broadband Agenda

Too often, broadband policy debates are too arcane for the general public to grasp.  Most people in the state probably never heard of WiscNet, and don’t realize when they might be using it.  But what they do understand is pay-for-play politics that hits them in the pocketbook.  As state residents learned the Republican majority wanted to ban the provider that delivers the most service for the least amount of money in favor of AT&T, they got involved and helped temporarily defeat the plan.

[flv width=”512″ height=”298″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WISC Madison UW Schools Voice Concerns About Budget Measure Affecting Internet 6-7-11.m4v[/flv]

June 7th: WISC-TV in Madison explains to viewers the plan to kill WiscNet would carry a pricetag of at least $70,000 in Madison alone, with potentially millions more at stake, all for the industry’s claim of a “level playing field.” (2 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WAOW Wausau Library Internet 6-08-11.mp4[/flv]

June 8th: WAOW-TV in Wausau discovers what the war on WiscNet would do to Internet access in area libraries.  (2 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WFRV Green Bay WiscNet Deleted 6-12-11.mp4[/flv]

June 12th: WFRV-TV in Green Bay tells its viewers the cost to procure Internet access in area universities could increase from $70,000 to more than $400,000, all to benefit private providers who want to compete at much higher price points.  (1 minute)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WXOW LaCrosse Pulling the Plug on WiscNet 6-13-11.mp4[/flv]

June 13th: LaCrosse residents are told they’ll pay more for less if large telecommunications companies get their wish to knock out inexpensive broadband through WiscNet.  WXOW-TV lead the 5pm evening news with news the bill was a last minute addition that received full support from state Republicans.  (2 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WEAU Eau Claire WiscNet 6-14-11.mp4[/flv]

June 14th: WEAU-TV in Eau Claire reports Sen. Terry Moulton (R-23rd District) got an earful from area hospitals about the terrible impact the shutdown of WiscNet would have there, which concerned him.  The station also reports on the threat to broadband funding in rural Chippewa Valley.  (Loud Volume Warning) (2 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WQOW Eau Claire WiscNet Targeted 6-14-11.mp4[/flv]

June 14th: Eau Claire station WQOW-TV reports university students and academia generally faced the end of unlimited bandwidth if the state proposal to do away with WiscNet were to pass into law.  A telecom industry lobbyist claims the bill would allow private providers to deliver comparable service to institutions, but one local institution found an amazing price disparity: $2,500/yr with WiscNet or $1,000,000/yr with a private provider.  (2 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WXOW La Crosse New Amendments 6-15-11.mp4[/flv]

June 15th: Newly elected Rep. Steve Doyle introduces amendments to turn back Republican proposals in the legislature that would harm statewide broadband networks, reports WXOW-TV in La Crosse.  (2 minutes)

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WKOW Madison WiscNet will stay the same in budget 6-16-11.mp4[/flv]

June 16th: WKOW-TV in Madison reports a compromise deal which will keep service running as-is for now, but subject WiscNet to government approval of any expansion efforts.  (1 minute)

Back in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission was looking for ways to expand broadband competition.  Borrowing from a mild success story in Europe, the Washington regulator, with the help of a well-financed lobbying campaign, approved new technology that would deliver broadband service over power lines, known as BPL.  The promises were great — fast access over an extensive, already-wired network that reached virtually every home in the country.  Glossy brochures promising a new generation of broadband and new competition were sent to every member of Congress.  Dollar-a-holler groups like the New Millennium Research Council produced “research reports” claiming the technology would advent a broadband revolution.  Some investors used to sleepy returns from utility companies dreamed about the promise of a rich new revenue stream pitching broadband service.

But there was a slight problem.  The technology worked better on paper than it did in real life.  Even more importantly, it carried more baggage than USAir.  Delivering wideband broadband signals over unshielded power cables never designed to carry radio frequencies meant interference — a lot of it, to any radio band the broadband signal occupied.  That meant a horrible listening experience on AM, and practically no listening at all over the shortwave bands, designated for military communications, international broadcasters, and the amateur radio community.

The FCC approved and supported the technology anyway, promising filters and other mitigation for those impacted by interference — a notion scoffed at by the American Radio Relay League, a group representing amateur radio operators.

So why don’t we have that third choice for broadband today?  BPL technology buried itself as its woeful performance could never match the high-flying marketing promises found in the brochure.

Fast forward to 2011 and manufacturers of satellite navigation devices, popularly known as GPS units, are terrified America is about to embark on another dreadful mistake.

LightSquared, a new entrant in the telecommunications marketplace, is constructing a nationwide 4G wireless broadband network with traditional ground-based antenna towers supplemented with a satellite system providing coverage in rural areas.  The company’s new network will occupy a frequency band just adjacent to that used by global positioning satellites, the backbone of the GPS system that some LightSquared critics contend will be crippled if the company’s 4G network is ever switched on.

[flv width=”640″ height=”388″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/LightSquared Intro.flv[/flv]

LightSquared released this promotional video talking up their future network.  (2 minutes)

Early interference tests conducted by a federal working group show those critics may be right.  Because satellite signals are so weak, manufacturers like Tom-Tom and Garmin must create highly sensitive GPS receivers to handle the faint signals.  Because these units are not always selective enough to reject adjacent signal interference, a neighboring transmitter delivering a much more powerful signal — such as that from LightSquared — could overwhelm them.

Independent testing found serious interference problems even for professional grade GPS units used by civil aviation, ships, and emergency responders.  A sampling:

• GM’s OnStar system received significant interference, making it difficult to identify the location of crashed vehicles and disrupting turn-by-turn directions and other navigation services;
• In recent tests in New Mexico, LightSquared caused GPS receivers used by nearby police, fire and ambulance crews to lose reception;
• John Deere’s agricultural equipment incorporating GPS technology failed to receive signals during the LightSquared testing;
• Both the Coast Guard and NASA reported significant interference to their GPS receivers;
• The Federal Aviation Administration reports their GPS receivers completely failed while the tests were conducted.

With complaints like that coming after a small-scale test, the thought of 40,000 ground-based LightSquared towers obliterating the nation’s access to GPS is more than just a little concerning to users and manufacturers.

“LightSquared’s network could cause devastating interference to all different kinds of GPS receivers,” Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble Navigation Ltd., told the Washington Post.  Trimble manufactures GPS devices.

The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics advised the FAA its own independent tests of the LightSquared system found the consequences of turning this 4G wireless service on would be cataclysmic for GPS signals, making most satellite navigation equipment completely useless in most major metropolitan areas.

LightSquared executive vice president Jeffrey Carlisle told the Post he remained confident that the two systems could co-exist, even admitting he expected to find interference issues.  Carlisle says the real question is how to mitigate it.

This is not the first time interference issues have come before the FCC.  Nearby spectrum neighbors often don’t get along, especially when one licensed user relies on weak signals from space and the other utilizes more powerful ground-based transmitters.  The Commission has even fielded complaints over garage door openers interfering with certain military radios.

LightSquared’s network concept isn’t by itself the problem.  XM Radio manages to operate its mix of satellite-delivered radio and 900 ground-based repeater transmitters without creating interference for other users.

Unfortunately for LightSquared, it has several problems to contend with, the most significant being its “zoning problem.”  The souped-up 4G network is simply not in character for the spectrum neighborhood it calls home.  It’s a McMansion being built in a neighborhood of cottages.  LightSquared’s neighbors are low powered satellite signals in the 1-2Ghz range, including those from the satellites which provide GPS.  In certain cases, receiver equipment can be designed to reject the adjacent interference a network like LightSquared could create, but with millions of existing GPS units already in use, that may prove impractical.

LightSquared has tried to rope off its channel space as much as possible, trading spectrum with other nearby users to create a nearly contiguous 20Mhz slice it can dedicate to its signals, in hopes of reducing interference.  But the recent tests suggest this may not be enough.  General Motors suggested LightSquared needs to find a better neighborhood — one more suited to the kind of signal it wants to offer.  That could come from a spectrum trade or a frequency reallocation by the FCC.

The FCC is taking a “wait and see” approach so far, claiming further tests are needed.  But the agency earlier pledged it would not allow LightSquared to operate its network if it created major interference problems for other spectrum users.  Some GPS manufacturers think that commitment is too vague, because “major interference” is in the eye of the beholder.

Those concerns may be warranted, considering the FCC earlier found its way clear to ignore the documented interference Broadband Over Power Lines created over both the AM and shortwave radio dial.  Even after a blizzard of lobbying and campaign contributions won support for BPL in Washington, the ultimately inferior product that resulted couldn’t win the support of the group that ultimately mattered most — paying customers.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Ahuja Says LightSquared to Finish 4G Network Before 2016 6-11-11.flv[/flv]

Sanjiv Ahuja, chief executive officer of LightSquared, talks about the company’s efforts to build a wireless broadband network as other spectrum users challenge the company’s potential to create interference.  (7 minutes)

With much fanfare, ViaSat’s WildBlue has unveiled a special discounted satellite “broadband” offer that comes courtesy of United States government taxpayer funding:

WildBlue’s same great service at an ultra-low price, courtesy of the U.S. government.

WildBlue, through the U.S. Recovery Act brings a special offer for high-speed Internet to areas unserved by wireline providers. It’s the most affordable deal we’ve ever offered, and the monthly price for this special package is guaranteed for as long as you remain a WildBlue customer. Take advantage of government funds to get High Speed Internet at discounted rates.

For $39.95 per month, WildBlue will provide the satellite equipment to deliver qualified subscribers up to 1Mbps service, subject to a monthly download limit as low as 7.5GB per month for downloads, 2.3GB per month for uploads.  Customers who exceed the limits will have their 1Mbps service throttled to near-dial-up speed until usage falls below the company’s “fair access policy.”

WildBlue explains the limited-time offer is made possible by funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Through a grant from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS), certain rural customers might qualify for the discounted pricing.

WildBlue only received authorization to deliver the discounted service to locations west of the Mississippi — specifically those not within an existing RUS project zone, are located in a defined rural area, and cannot receive service from a telephone, cable, or fiber provider.  Current WildBlue customers also do not qualify.

The grant funding covers installation and equipment charges, the client only pays for the service itself.  But would-be customers are required to commit to at least one year of service or face an early termination penalty and must pass a credit check.

WildBlue customers, as well as those of other satellite providers, have given satellite Internet access low satisfaction scores, primarily because of speed and usage limitation issues.  But for some without any other choice, it is a service they live with for basic web access.

Vincent, one of our regular Stop the Cap! readers sent along a link to a story about the decrepit state of American broadband: it’s a real mess for those who can’t get it, can’t get enough of it, and compare it against what other people abroad are getting.

Cracked delivers the top five reasons why American broadband sucks.  Be sure and read their take (adult language), but we have some thoughts of our own to share:

#5 Some of Us Just Plain Can’t Get It

Large sections of the prairie states, the mountain states, and the desert states can’t get broadband no matter how much they want it.  That’s because they are a hundred miles or more from the nearest cable system and depend on the phone companies — especially AT&T, Frontier, CenturyLink, and Windstream to deliver basic DSL.  AT&T is trying as hard as possible to win the right to abandon rural America altogether with the elimination of their basic service obligation.  Verizon has sold off some of their most rural territories, including the entire states of Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and West Virginia.  CenturyLink has absorbed Qwest in the least populated part of America — the mountain and desert west.

Frontier and Windstream are betting their business models on rural DSL, and while some are grateful to have anything resembling broadband, neither company earns spectacular customer ratings.

So long as rural broadband is not an instant profit winner for the phone companies selling it, rural America will remain dependent on dial-up or [shudder] satellite fraudband.

#4 Often There are No Real Options for Service (and No Competition)

Cracked has discovered the wonderfully inaccurate world of broadband mapping, where the map shows you have plentiful broadband all around, but phone calls to the providers on the list bring nothing but gales of laughter.  As if you are getting service at your house.  Ever.  Stop the Cap! hears regularly from the broadband-deprived, some who have had to be more innovative than the local phone company ever was looking for ways to get service.  Some have paid to bury their own phone cable to get DSL the phone company was reluctant to install, others have created super-powered Wi-Fi networks to share a neighbor’s connection.  The rest live with broadband envy, watching for any glimpse of phone trucks running new wires up and down the road.

Competition is a concept foreign to most Americans confronted with one cable company and one phone company charging around the same price for service.  The most aggressive competition comes when a community broadband provider throws a monkey wrench into the duopoly.  Magically, rate hikes are few and fleeting and speeds are suddenly much better.  Hmmm.

#3 Those Who Have Access Still Lag Behind the Rest of the World

This is an unnerving problem, especially when countries like Lithuania are now kicking the United States into the broadband corner.  You wouldn’t believe we’re that bad off listening to providers, who talk about the innovative and robust broadband economy — the one that is independent of their lousy service.  In fact, the biggest impediment to more innovation may be those same providers.  Some have an insatiable appetite for money — money from you, money from content producers, money from taxpayers, more money from you, and by the way there better be a big fat check from Netflix in the mail this week for using our pipes!

Where is the real innovation?  Community providers like Greenlight, Fibrant, and EPB that deliver their respective communities kick-butt broadband — service other providers would like to shut down at all costs.  Not every commercial provider is an innovation vacuum.  Verizon FiOS and Google’s new Gigabit fiber network in Kansas City represent innovation through investment.  Unfortunately Wall Street doesn’t approve.

Still not convinced?  Visit Japan or Korea and then tell us how American broadband resembles NetZero or AOL dial-up in comparison.

#2 Bad Internet = Shi**y Economy

The demagoguery of corporate-financed dollar-a-holler groups like “FreedomWorks” and “Americans for Prosperity” is without bounds.  Whether it was attacking broadband stimulus funding, community broadband endeavors, or Net Neutrality, these provider shills turned broadband expansion into something as worthwhile as a welfare benefit for Cadillac drivers.  Why are we spending precious tax dollars on Internet access so people can steal movies and download porn they asked.  Why are we letting communities solve their own broadband problems building their own networks when it should be commercial providers being the final arbiter of who deserves access and who does not?  Net Neutrality?  Why that’s a socialist government takeover, it surely is.

It’s like watching railroad robber barons finance protest movements against public road construction.  We can’t have free roads paved by the government unfairly competing with monopoly railway companies, can we?  That’s anti-American!

The cost of inadequate broadband in an economy that has jettisoned manufacturing jobs to Mexico and the Far East is greater than we realize.  Will America sacrifice its leadership in the Internet economy to China the same way we did with our textile, electronics, appliances, furniture, and housewares industries?  China, Japan and Korea are building fiber optic broadband networks for their citizens and businesses.  We’re still trying to figure out how to wire West Virginia for 3Mbps DSL.

#1 At This Point, Internet Access is Kind of a Necessity

The United Nations this week declared the Internet to be a basic human right.  Conservatives scoffed at that, ridiculing the declaration for a variety of reasons ranging from disgust over any body that admits Hugo Chavez, to the lack of a similar declaration for gun ownership, and the usual interpretation of broadband as a high tech play-toy.  Some folks probably thought the same way about the telephone and electricity around 1911.

Yes, the Internet can be frivolous, but then so can a phone call.  Cursed by the U.S. Post Office for destroying their first class mail business, by telephone directory publishers, and those bill payment envelope manufacturers, the Internet does have its detractors.  But should we go back to picking out commemorative stamps at the post office?  Your local phone and cable company sure doesn’t think so.  We don’t either.

Vermont officials this month are learning broadband maps purporting to represent widespread availability of high speed Internet access across the state are much less accurate than originally thought.  Now into its second week, the BroadbandVT project to identify service gaps and collect actual broadband speeds is showing a chasm between provider claims and actual broadband reality on the ground for the state’s 625,000 residents.

Vermont’s broadband service availability map was originally reliant on service providers voluntarily contributing data about where service was available — data that has rapidly found to be faulty as Vermont residents report their actual broadband experiences to the state’s website.

The state’s Broadband Mapping Team used data from a phone survey conducted in January by the University of Vermont-Center for Rural Studies to verify providers’ claims of broadband availability.  On May 12, state officials reported that their provider-inspired maps were not accurate, and officials wanted residents to help verify coverage.

“I’m bound and determined to have Vermont connected by 2013 — high-speed Internet and cell service to every last mile. One of our challenges is that we don’t have information that we can trust about who has service and who doesn’t,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said. “So we need Vermonter’s help, so we can figure out where to go. So we’re urging Vermonters to use our new website to help us get truth about your service in your home or business.”

In similar cases Stop the Cap! has followed, the biggest sources of inaccurate data turn out to be telephone companies and wireless providers.  Phone companies like FairPoint Communications may advertise DSL available in certain communities, but be unable to actually provide the service to every household due to the distance between the central telephone exchange and the customer’s home, or because of deteriorated infrastructure.  Wireless providers often theorize where service should be available, but real world experience proves otherwise.

FairPoint told the Brattleboro Reformer the phone company intends to do much better delivering DSL to Vermont residents in the coming weeks.  The company claims it already provides DSL access to 82 percent of the state and intends to increase that number considerably higher in June.

“We have a plan with the state to bring total broadband coverage to half of our telephone exchanges in the state, so that’s the first three digits of your phone number. Ninety-five percent of that will be done in the next six weeks,” said FairPoint spokeswoman Sabina Haskell.

Vermont residents appear to be enthusiastic participants in the project, with 1,500 visitors a day using the website’s broadband maps and taking speed tests to share results with the state, who can compare them against providers’ speed claims.

Vermont’s expansion of broadband service is a state priority, and directing resources to areas of need has proved critical as the state receives and spends broadband stimulus funding.  Crowdsourced maps can expose exaggerated claims of broadband availability or confirm them as accurate.  The state intends to update its maps regularly based on data it receives, all part of an initiative to deliver 100 percent broadband coverage across the state.

[flv width=”360″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WPTZ Plattsburgh Lawmakers Debate Broadband 4-12-11.mp4[/flv]

WPTZ-TV in Plattsburgh explores Vermont’s new initiative to bring broadband to 100 percent of the state’s residents.  (2 minutes)

[flv width=”360″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WPTZ Plattsburgh Website Identifies Broadband Availability 5-12-11.mp4[/flv]

WPTZ-TV also reports on the state’s new website to verify broadband mapping data and speed claims made by the state’s phone and cable companies.  (3 minutes)