Page 36 - PCCA Journal 2nd Quarter 2012

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PCCA Journal|2
nd
Quarter 2012
36
News Briefs
Continued from page 35
FCC Announces
Expansion of National
Broadband Test
I
n February, the FCC announced the
start of the 2012 Measuring Broad-
band America process, issuing a
public notice to announce the start of
the next round of tests and calling on
consumers across the country to volun-
teer as participants. The participation of
volunteers is vital to the FCC’s effort to
measure broadband performance in the
United States.
The first Measuring Broadband
America Report examined service of-
ferings from 13 of the largest wireline
broadband providers using automated,
direct measurements of the broadband
performance of thousands of volunteer
broadband customers during March
2011. The study measured speed and
performance as broadband is delivered
to the home so that different service
providers and technologies could be
compared scientifically. The report estab-
lished for the first time that the majority
of service providers were delivering per-
formance approaching or exceeding the
levels they advertised to their customers.
It also identified internet service provid-
ers (ISPs) that fell short of advertised
speeds. A few months after the report
was released, the FCC noticed a signifi-
cant improvement by a major ISP and
announced the results in a blog post.
The report was the culmination of a
year-long effort involving the coopera-
tion of 22 stakeholders that included
academic researchers from MIT and
Georgia Tech, technology vendors, con-
sumer groups, and ISPs representing 86
percent of all residential wireline broad-
band consumers in the United States to
measure broadband performance to the
homes of a representative sampling of
thousands of volunteers.
The FCC plans to issue two Measuring
Broadband America reports in 2012. It
is expanding the study to include more
technologies, extending the study into
new regions of the country, and plan-
ning to publish more kinds of data. The
first round of testing for 2012 began in
March.
Bingaman Revives Clean
Energy Standard
O
n March 1, Senator Jeff Binga-
man (D-N.Mex.) introduced
legislation to modernize the na-
tion's power sector and guide it toward a
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