TPRC Panelists Agree on Need for Better Broadband Data

In a panel about the socio-economic impacts of broadband, panelists all agreed that the overwhelming limiting factor in proving the benefits to broadband was the lack of solid broadband data. James McConnaughey, chief economist at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said that "Having good data leads to good policy making," but currently that policy-makers currently lack the necessary data to allow for effective cost-benefit analysis or even general societal implication analysis. McConnaughey also said that broadband data collected must come from reliable and neutral sources. The Census Bureau has recently reinvigorated its efforts in this field, but it cannot be the only source. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, called for a National Broadband Data Warehouse." Such a warehouse would house all the data on availability and usage which was collected by the government, and any organization which is getting federal funding to aid in broadband expansion or mapping.