Center’s suit to get broadband data draws industry interest, comment

The Center for Public Integrity is leading an effort to find out more about which companies are providing high-speed Internet access throughout the United States so that citizens have a better understanding of their service options.

A Center lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act is attracting industry-wide interest.

The Center wants to make data about these companies publicly available online through Well Connected’s Media Tracker, a free, Internet-based database of the radio, television, newspaper and cable companies that is searchable by ZIP code. Media Tracker was first released in 2003, and updated and expanded in October and November 2006.

Publicly identifying the companies that provide broadband service would help give citizens a more complete understanding of who they could turn to for high-speed access — which is becoming increasingly important in economic development and the spread of information. The availability of competitive broadband service is an issue involved in a range of telecommunications policy debates, including Net neutrality, universal service and video competition.

Well Connected also tracks the political influence of the major players in the telecommunications, media and technology industries, supplying information on the companies culled from the Center’s lobbying, campaign contribution and privately sponsored travel data.

AT&T, Verizon Communications and three leading telecommunications trade groups filed court papers seeking to intervene or comment on the Center’s lawsuit last week. The top cable association is also seeking to weigh in. (Links to each of the documents in the official court docket are provided in the box to the right. It will be updated as further documents are filed.)

In court papers filed Jan. 8, AT&T and Verizon, together with the United States Telecom Association (to which both companies belong), objected to the release of the broadband data. Wireless Communications Association International, a trade group representing a range of wireless broadband service providers, said that it had also objected.

Separately, CTIA — the wireless association formerly known as the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association — supported the FCC in a “friend of the court” brief filed Jan. 8. A fourth association, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, seeks to file a similar brief.

The Department of Justice and the FCC filed their response to the Center’s complaint on Jan. 8, the court-imposed deadline.

The Center’s reply to the government and to the intervening companies is due on April 3.

The database in question is referred to as the “Form 477” database, nicknamed after the number of an FCC document. The agency has required communications companies to provide data about the areas they serve, as well as other information, twice annually since 2000.

Although the FCC does not make the database public, it does produce a semi-annual report about broadband availability and competition that is based on the data.

The Center believes that release of the base data is important because the information will aid in the general public’s understanding of the importance of broadband.

Dating back to at least to April 2004, President George W. Bush declared that it was a national priority to spur the development of high-speed Internet service. “I’m talking about broadband technology to every corner of our country by the year 2007 with competition shortly thereafter,” Bush said then in remarks at the American Association of Community Colleges Annual Convention.

Knowing the identities of the companies would also allow the public to better gauge the reliability of the FCC’s own database. In a report released in May 2006, the Government Accountability Office discussed “information [received from the FCC] on the companies providing broadband service in ZIP codes throughout the United States.” The GAO’s analysis of Form 477 data allowed it to conclude that the median number of broadband providers within a ZIP code was two, rather than eight, as the FCC’s analysis of the data found.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, agencies have 20 working days to respond to requests. The Center’s FOIA request was hand-delivered to the agency on Aug. 24, 2006. When the agency failed to respond within the required period, the Center filed suit on Sept. 25.

The agency responded to the FOIA request in a letter faxed to the Center on Sept. 26, 2006. The Center filed an administrative appeal to the FCC’s rejection letter on Oct. 19. The FCC has not replied to the administrative appeal.

The case, Center for Public Integrity v. Federal Communications Commission, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case had been assigned to Judge Rosemary M. Collyer on Sept. 25, 2006. But on Jan. 17, 2007, the case was reassigned to Judge Ellen S. Huvelle.