Public Knowledge and three other public-interest groups sharply c...
Public Knowledge and three other public-interest groups sharply condemned Connected Nation, a broadband-mapping organization best known for its work in Kentucky and Tennessee. In a report released Monday, Public Knowledge, Common Cause, Reclaim the Media and the Media &…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Democracy Coalition accused Nation of acting in the interest of big telephone and cable companies and exaggerating its success in promoting broadband deployment. “It would be a setback for our broadband policy if Connected Nation were to take a prominent role in broadband mapping and data collection if it continues on its present policy course,” they said. Connected Nation replied that it had already knocked down the criticisms. Connected Nation isn’t “a neutral broker in broadband information,” the critics said. Eight of the group’s 12 outside directors work for big companies and telecom trade associations, such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom, they said. “Quite simply, Connected Nation’s strategy is to accept public funds for collecting information from its sponsors which is then kept largely private, hidden behind strict non-disclosure agreements.” Connected Nation has “overstated” its success in bringing broadband to Kentucky and other states, the groups said. The claimed results are based on a comparison of Kentucky and national broadband growth, they said. That’s misleading, because Kentucky started from a low base, they said. “If we are to measure broadband success using the Connected Nation standard, the rural areas of the United States are greatly outperforming the ‘national average’ and greatly outperforming the urban areas.” Public Knowledge offered a similar critique of Connected Nation in a January 2008 report. “Connected Nation has already refuted all of these claims in its multiple FCC filings in the public docket last year,” a spokeswoman said. “The only new information in this paper is pertaining to a document that the author claims to be a Connected Nation nondisclosure agreement, but which is not even a Connected Nation document.” To doubters, the spokeswoman recommended a study by Michigan State University employing a different measure of the group’s success.