Feds to release interactive broadband map today

Economic developers and service providers should be able to find multiple uses for a government-created broadband map, scheduled to be available for interactive use via the Internet this afternoon (at http://broadbandmap.gov/).

In a webcast conference call with reporters this morning, officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Agency provided a demonstration of some of the capabilities of the new map, such as the ability to:

- graphically display areas where broadband is available by speed or technology at different geographic levels (national, county, census tract, etc.) 

- use zoom in functionality similar to that available through sites such as Mapquest

- obtain a list of providers in an area that offer broadband ranked by the highest advertised speed available, including the technology used

- rank geographic areas on a variety of factors such as percentage of the area where broadband is available at a certain speed

- view a variety of metrics for a geographic area, such as the number of anchor institutions (schools, libraries, etc.) in the area and the percentage of those institutions that have broadband at a certain speed

Economic developers or businesses looking to relocate could use these tools, for example, to scout our new business locations—and individual consumers could use the same tools to learn about alternatives to their current broadband provider.

FCC says: Developers welcome

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was on hand to tout the map’s open application programming interfaces, which he said could be a “useful platform for developers and entrepreneurs,” who should be able to “create new products and services.”

Although he did not provide specific examples, potentially Internet information sites such as Yelp could incorporate some of the map functionality into their sites.

The interactive map was based on data provided by 1600 service providers, said NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling. He added that the NTIA independently verified some of the data provided by service providers, even conducting drive tests in some cases to confirm broadband wireless availability.

The map was developed at a cost of approximately $200 million, part of which was made available through the broadband stimulus program, Strickling said. The map will be updated twice a year.