From time to time you hear folks talking about broadband penetration and how impossible it is to get carriers to talk about how many within which communities are, and are not, being served.
Perhaps you heard this story this week: there are now officially more cellphone-only households than there are wireline-only households in the United States.
The interesting tweak to the story is its source.
In a copyrighted story by the Associated Press, reporter Alan Fram released the statistic that showed that the trend away from wireline telephones accelerated in the last half of 2008, as spending-wary Americans more frequently choose to keep their cell service instead of their wireline service.
Six in 10 Americans have both services, but a quarter of those never use the wireline service for voice calls (they're hooked up to computers and alarm systems). In the end, it all means that 35% of all Americans can only be reached by cell phone.
The Federal Communications Commission is the nation's regulator of wired and wireless communications services. As the body charged with oversight of services so key to our everyday lives, one might expect that they'd be keen on watching on how communications in the United States grows and shifts. But they weren't the ones releasing these numbers: this excellent communications data comes from the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC).
Now the CDC did not use any regulatory authority to get our carriers to tell them anything about their industries -- and the FCC apparently isn't a good-enough source for the communications data they needed, either. So they actually went out and visited some 12,597 American households and found out for themselves.
So I thought it would appropriate, here on the Public Knowledge blog, to pass on this milestone communications data which is not available from the FCC. Which makes me wonder, what does the Federal Communications Commission know about Communications in the United States?
My friend Karl Bode pointed
My friend Karl Bode pointed me to an article from Scientific American Blog that is well worth reading. It not only adds to this story, but gives more of the statistics.
The US Census asks a large number of questions not related to the census itself, but it asks because the information it reveals is very relevant to US commerce. Having it available helps small and large companies alike serve this nation.
This is a clue to the FCC that the data it collects isn't useful enough for the CDC. And if it could be made worse, apparently the CDC has been showing up the FCC in this area for years!
The FCC has been blocked by the industries that it regulates, which sounds like a good excuse until you rephrase it to say that "the inmates are running the asylum."
Robb, you are very, very
Robb, you are very, very incorrect. Despite its politically motivated and illegal order in the Comcast proceeding (which, incidentally, parroted false statements made by you), the FCC has in general been very concerned about preserving competition. That's why it has insisted upon keeping ISPs' precise coverage data private to prevent it from being used in anticompetitive ways. See http://projects.publicintegrity.org/docs/telecom/telecomfoia/09.1 Statement of Facts.pdf
Bret, Care to post any
Bret,
Care to post any facts in all that name-calling?
Regardless of the excuse — competition or “dog ate my homework” — the FCC seems rather unable to tell us basic facts about Communications. Because of this, the CDC has to find out for itself. Next, shall we ask the CDC about spectrum crowding?
Next time that you post a 21 page document, please tell me what you’d like me to read and how it directly affects the topic at hand.
Robb, the facts regarding
Robb, the facts regarding the Comcast case are well documented; see Commissioner McDowell’s very well written dissent. As for the fact that wireless is decimating wireline: Where have you been? It’s no secret. I and other WISPs have been reporting it publicly for at least 9 months. We are switching tens of thousands of users from wired services (cable as well as DSL) to wireless every month.
As for the legal brief: most people are capable of skimming a document. However, I did sum up its content in the posting in which I linked to it. If you cannot figure out how it bears on the topic at hand, I am not sure I can help you.