PK’s own Art Brodsky appeared on NPR’s On the Media program this past Friday. The segment featured Mark McElroy of Connected Nation—which has several contracts to map broadband facilities—describing his organization’s mapping methodology and their need for secrecy in sources; and a rebuttal by Art, who argues that the secrecy is used to skew the numbers in order to protect choice markets for the large telecomm incumbents who sit on Connected Nation’s board.
You can listen to the segment, and read a transcript, here: http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/06/19/04
Highly biased media…. If
Highly biased media…. If you listen to the segment, or read the transcript, you will see that the host is asking loaded questions of the representative from Connected Nation, and in fact contradicting what he is saying outright, while lobbing only softballs to Art. Ironically, this is exactly what we do NOT want in our media.
The truth is that no census — broadband or otherwise — can be properly conducted without confidentiality. With broadband, in particular, there is a very serious risk; if there is no confidentiality, the precise maps of the coverage of small, independent, and competitive providers will enable anticompetitive tactics on the part of large carriers.
Connected Nation is the only organization that does broadband mapping which has ironclad NDAs and a proven track record of keeping providers’ proprietary information confidential. This makes it highly qualified to do broadband mapping.