National Broadband Map’s Accuracy Questioned

The National Broadband Map shows Alaska, Texas, Idaho and Nevada as the only states with U.S. Census tracts that have no ability to connect to the Internet. However, some Nevada Internet service providers apparently believe the first version of the map isn't an accurate representation of Internet accessibility in Nevada.

“There are humungous errors in that map,” said Karen Pearl, executive director of the Nevada Telecommunications Association. The association represents various service providers in the state. “We’re ticked! That was a lot of effort, time and taxpayer money.” Connected Nation, a nonprofit public-private partnership, was contracted as the broadband mapping agent for 12 states and Puerto Rico, contributing nearly a quarter of the records that compose the national map. The Nevada map was created by Connect Nevada, a subsidiary of Connected Nation, which worked with each of the state’s broadband providers to create detailed maps of broadband coverage and to assess the current state of broadband adoption, community-by-community, across Nevada. The Nevada Telecommunications Association helped facilitate the data collection in the state. As with many new programs, traffic on the map website has been heavy since its initial launch Thursday, sometimes preventing the map from loading correctly — a possible explanation about the confusion about the data. “The data in the Connect Nevada map is the same data being used for the National Broadband Map,” Jessica Ditto, spokeswoman for Connected Nation, wrote in an e-mail. “We have received inquiries regarding how provider data is displayed across the two versions and we are working to investigate and respond to these questions. Due to the fact that the national map has only been available for 24 hours, we are currently investigating consumer and provider questions and will be offering clarifying answers as soon as we have more information," she said.