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FCC Data Exaggerates Broadband Access On Tribal Lands (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Broadband access in tribal areas is likely even worse than previously thought because Federal Communications Commission data overstates deployment, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). FCC data collection was already known to be suspect throughout the U.S., not just in tribal areas, which in turn makes it difficult for the FCC to target deployment funding to the areas that need it most. Tribal lands have less broadband access than most other parts of the U.S. and thus may be disproportionately affected by the FCC's data collection problems.
"Residents of tribal lands have lower levels of broadband Internet access relative to the U.S. as a whole, but the digital divide may be greater than currently thought," the GAO wrote. "FCC data overstated tribes' broadband availability and access to broadband service. These overstatements limit FCC and tribal users' ability to target broadband funding to tribal lands." Despite the well-known broadband access problems in tribal areas, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been trying to limit the Lifeline subsidies that help tribal residents purchase Internet access. A federal appeals court recently blocked Pai's attempt to take a broadband subsidy away from tribal areas.
"Residents of tribal lands have lower levels of broadband Internet access relative to the U.S. as a whole, but the digital divide may be greater than currently thought," the GAO wrote. "FCC data overstated tribes' broadband availability and access to broadband service. These overstatements limit FCC and tribal users' ability to target broadband funding to tribal lands." Despite the well-known broadband access problems in tribal areas, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been trying to limit the Lifeline subsidies that help tribal residents purchase Internet access. A federal appeals court recently blocked Pai's attempt to take a broadband subsidy away from tribal areas.
FCC Data Exaggerates Broadband Access
The lobbyists just forgot to do something about that particular group being allowed to complain.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
I one got 100/100 on the free WiFi at one
So, a government agency fudges data to paint a "LOOK HOW GREAT WE ARE!!!!" picture?
And we're acting surprised?
You expect because you like your broadband you can keep your broadband?
It doesn't matter who is in power - governments lie and abuse people.
Seriously just stop giving corrupt tribes our money so they can misplace it and never be held accountable.
Can't have the natives sharing broadband communications, might get uppity about their rights or lack there of. The establishment response, let's not kid about, 'FUCK EM'. Might complain about polluting their land, stealing their resources, killing their people, the rest of the world might really hear how the US government Federal, State and Local, abuses native Americans upon a routine and regular basis. I am Australian and this message is brought to you by the way the Australian government, Federal, State and Local abuse the 'Nunga People' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... (I am South Australia and that is the most accurate regional nomenclature, not a fucking adjective).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Thanks, Obama!
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
Now when was it that Trump came to be the president? I guess the market just saw it coming in 2009.
to support your position when you make up the data only to support your position.
I guess maybe someone hacked the FCC again to produce these outright lies. /s
Which region is Trump's tribe occupying at the moment?
Thanks, Obama!
"Look how well you're breathing now that Obama's foot is off your throat! Isn't it great of him to choke you all those years, and then stop stepping on your neck!"
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The Register has a better article on this here.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/13/fcc_broadband_data_garbage/
They do a pretty good job of breaking down why the FCC data is so flawed and also why this report only deals with Tribal Lands.
Minne-snow-da: Winter is comming...
WHY hasn't this orange hair ORANGUTAN been IMPEACH???????????
Like the rest of this administration, the FCC is a criminal enterprise now (emphasis added)
Nice job, Trump voters
I just knew that this sort of thing was going to crop up in this discussion. Let me share a few quotes from the report:
According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as of December 2016, 35.4 percent of Americans residing on tribal lands lacked access to fixed broadband services, compared to 7.7 percent of all Americans.
owever, in 2016 we reported that tribal and federal officials had concerns that the federal map of broadband availability at the time (the National Broadband Map) did not accurately depict broadband availability on tribal lands.
The federal government has not updated the National Broadband Map since April 2015, with the last update containing data as of June 30, 2014.
To address both objectives, we analyzed FCCâ(TM)s December 2016â"the most recent data at the time of our review
In case it isn't obvious, all of those statements clearly indicate that the data and analysis are from prior to Trump taking office. Now, the Trump administration has done plenty that is worthy of criticism, but so did the Obama administration. Yet, I see plenty of Republicans willing to openly criticize Trump, but hardly any Democrats willing to criticize Obama, Hillary, etc.
If the strategy is to always blame the other side, even when your side was the source or a major part of the problem, then it is difficult to actually fix anything.
Unemployment numbers are a good example. Democrats continually complained that Bush wasn't using the "real" numbers since U3 (I think it is) does not accurately reflect labor participation, among other things. They same complaint is being made about Trump. Interestingly, the methodology remained unchanged under Obama, yet I cannot recall a single instance of a prominent Democrat or the media calling out Obama for fudging the unemployment numbers.
And lest you think that I am biased against Obama and the Democrats, the Republicans do the same thing. Listen to a Republican rant and rave about Obama racking up more debt then every previous president put together. Then ask what the majority party was in Congress that sent him spending bills for 6 of the 8 years of his presidency.
Seriously, own it when your own side is wrong and then get to work fixing it.
It's my understanding that anyone that wishes to build cellular infrastructure on tribal land must go through the FCC. Then,by law, the FCC must send out notifications to every tribe in the US (regardless of being states away) and ask if they have a vested interest in that tiny plot of land to be used. If "Yes", the tribe must make an offer.
So what do you know, every tribe comes out of the woodwork and demands fee. That gets real expensive in a hurry!
Life is not for the lazy.
What better way to keep a population compliant and docile, than by conditioning them to believe, that government — and its officially-sanctioned monopolies — is the source of all the important things: food, shelter, electricity and other utilities, healthcare, and now the Internet service?
At what point did we collectively swallow the patent falsehood, that without the benevolent and omniscient government officials none of those things would've been available — and that any self-evident problems encountered are due to a particular official being insufficiently benevolent or omniscient, rather simply that whatever government does is done poorly?
This is all to ask, why do we need FCC at all?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
When we put the indians on "tribal" lands, and said "we'll take care of you", provide them with housing, food, medial etc...it was a perfect example of government instituted SOCIALISM. How's that worked out for them? And people are hell bent on having the entire country embrace communism/socialism? NO THANK YOU!
They are a separate nation. Not our job to improve the infrastructure on the lands that they own and police themselves.
I was curious of what was going on here. Had the FCC in the last 2 years suddenly gave the shaft to tribal lands? Here is an quote from the article:
"As of December 2016, only 64.6 percent of tribal areas had access to home Internet services with speeds of at least 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up, for example. Those speeds were available in 69.3 percent of rural areas and 97.9 percent of urban areas."
First, who was in control of the FCC on December 2016? Not who's controlling it now. Where was the outcry then!!!
Second, the data from tribal areas compared to rural areas is nearly the same. The comparison to urban areas doesn't make sense. Most of the tribal land is not urbanized. (and i believe a lot of Native Americans would prefer it that way)
So the article proves the following:
When President Obama was in office this "horrific" FCC mentality was firmly in place. How dare he, and his corrupt FCC!!
I wrote this not to put down the former president, or elevate the current president and his FCC. I believe people need to be able to look at facts and make informed decisions. Please people, don't allow anyone to hijack your thoughts by pandering to your "political lean". Do some quick research and be a better person for it.
'FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been trying to limit the Lifeline subsidies that help tribal residents purchase Internet access', this is the issue, not when the data was collected.
But, please, don't let the fact that your apologist attempt to deflect was so blatantly obvious that everyone who read it knew exactly what was your intent stop you from, "what about Obama??!!!???", gas lighting. We understand what a reach y'all Trumpette's are having to go to these days.
https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/systems-utilities/tower-construction-notifications
It's right there. Now AC, learn to wipe your own ass after you take a shit
The weight of his foot vs. the Orange Fat Bastard we have running the show now, I'd take 10 of Obama's feet vs. one from that thin-skinned overblown criminal cocksucker bag of dicks currently in charge.
Your link says NOTHING about other tribes objecting or causing interference in the process. That's BULLSHIT.
Your link actually says use of that reporting system is VOLUNTARY. Wrong again! More BULLSHIT.
Please stop spreading BULLSHIT. Wipe yo own ass, fucktard.
When people resort to caps, they are wrong and know no other way to express themselves.
How about just being honest? The majority of the FCC doesn't care about having good broadband access at competitive prices anywhere in the US. Competitive prices would mean businesses wouldn't be able to charge near monopolistic prices or skimp out on their expansion. The last thing any business wants to have as their motto is "expand or die". They want "expand enough to appease the next quarterly announcement for the shareholders but not enough to piss of a competitor who may feel threatened to fight a price/expansion war".
So, the FCC could just be honest about the broadband situation. Then they'd be compelled to actually regulate from a populace who could clearly read their reports which practically beg for regulation. So, just smudge the facts a little bit and the FCC gets to write "the truth". "No cause for alarm people. No need for regulation."
It's such a sweet deal when you can put in charge a person who has drank the flavor aid and thinks all the little people can just go fuck themselves. I mean, if they had sold their soul or did something important, they'd be paid such heaps of money that those monopolistic prices wouldn't mean a thing. Hell, helping to enforce those monopolistic prices just does more to keep the poor and middle class poor if they want to have any sort of "good" life. Drop out of all that to save money and you're some sort of "kook" to be ignored.
Yep, such a sweet, sweet deal. Can't imagine why I think I'm better than them.
"However, FCC considers broadband to be “available” for an entire census block if the provider could serve at least one location in the census block." and "Additionally, FCC does not collect information on several factors—such as affordability, quality, and denials of service—that FCC and tribal stakeholders stated can affect the extent to which Americans living on tribal lands can access broadband services." So, one person in a census block can get the service for $200/month? Coverage! And even with those juked numbers, you still don't see 100% coverage in urban areas and only 69.3% in rural areas? That's pathetic. Couple that with the FCC deciding that if you're within a mile of the termination point of another provider, they're consider a competitor to whatever access you have and you're basically guaranteeing that companies will and do intentionally fail to solve "the last mile" problem and charge monopolistic rates.
You want to argue that this started before Trump? Sure as fuck it did. It's been going on since the 90s at least with the push by government with funding to expand out broadband and never holding providers to actually deliver. Every President from Clinton to Trump is to blame for the sorry state of affairs. There is every reason to put down each President in the list. I don't see how "it stills sucks" does anything to elevate the current President or the FCC. It just further entrenches the notion that this President can't or won't do anything to actually increase competition, strike better deals, or really give a shit about rural voters.
I thought the whole point of these tribal lands was to allow the natives to live the same lifestyle as their ancestors. Why is the federal government promoting the white man's technology there?
6gunner your name's on a post impersonating me & worse was you altering /. user's words https://linux.slashdot.org/com... since I challenged you to show you do better work and you can't after you tried to mock me you hypocrite LYING loser https://linux.slashdot.org/com... .
* You're online FAKENAME trash c6gunner & a childish dishonest punk.
APK
P.S.=> Impossible to deny FACT of your name on those posts you unbelievable pussy loser... apk
6gunner your FAKEname's on a post impersonating me & worse was you altering /. user's words https://linux.slashdot.org/com... since I challenged you to show you do better work and you can't after you tried to mock me you hypocrite LYING loser https://linux.slashdot.org/com... .
* You're online FAKENAME trash c6gunner & a childish dishonest punk.
APK
P.S.=> Impossible to deny FACT of your FAKEname (for your FAKE wasted lie of a so-called life) on that 1st post link above you unbelievable pussy loser... apk