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How are isps not s monopoly12/17/2022 ![]() A recent FCC update fixed none of these problems. But users who plug their address into the map will quickly find that it hallucinates not only the number of broadband options available in their area, but the speeds any local ISPs can provide. The FCC’s $350 million broadband map, for example, relies on the agency’s Form 477 data to help educate users on broadband availability. As a result, the government routinely declares countless markets connected and competitive when reality tells a very different story. Worse, the FCC’s methodology declares an entire ZIP code as “served” with broadband if just one home in an entire census block has it. “The best maps we have at the federal level are awful.” The FCC also refuses to make the pricing data provided by ISPs available to the public. But the FCC doesn’t audit the accuracy of this data, despite the fact that ISPs are heavily incentivized to overstate speed and availability to downplay industry failures. And as long as regulators are relying on a false picture of US broadband access, actually solving the problem may be impossible.Īs it currently stands, ISPs are required to deliver Form 477 data to the FCC indicating broadband availability and speed twice a year. ![]() But instead of tackling that problem head on, the FCC is increasingly looking the other way, relying on ISP data that paints an inaccurately rosy picture of Americans’ internet access. ![]() US customers pay some of the highest prices for broadband in the developed world, and broadband availability is sketchy at best for millions of Americans. The problem is much bigger than Cleveland, but the FCC isn’t ready to do much about it. Even in more affluent neighborhoods, users are lucky if they have an ISP that can deliver speeds over 50 Mbps. AT&T has avoided upgrading lower-income minority neighborhoods at the same rate as higher-income parts of the city, despite decades of subsidies and tax breaks intended to prevent that from happening, according to a report by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). It’s particularly bad in the city’s poorer, urban areas. With only one or two largely apathetic ISPs to choose from, high prices, slow speeds, limited deployment, and customer service headaches are the norm. Like countless other American cities, Cleveland, Ohio, suffers from a lack of meaningful broadband competition.
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