Map Critical to Better Broadband, Connect Alaska Event Told
Alaska launched its first statewide broadband availability map, announced Commissioner Susan Bell of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development in a webcast by Connect Alaska late Wednesday. The web-based map, funded by an economic stimulus grant, could be key to better broadband access and adoption, Connected Nation officials said.
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Data from 18 broadband providers indicated some 90 percent of Alaskans can access broadband. However, of those, only 77 percent of residents report using broadband at home. The map shows some 86 percent of Alaska households have access to terrestrial fixed broadband service of at least 768 kbps downstream and 200 kbps upstream (excluding mobile and satellite services) -- representing some 31,867 unserved households. The analysis is conducted through a geoprocessing tool that analyzes Census Block demographics with the aggregated broadband service overlay from provider data.
The data from the interactive map is the beginning of a comprehensive initiative to address the supply and demand-side challenges of the state, said Connected Nation CEO Brian Mefford. “We start with data gathering, we move to analysis and assessment and then we move into the planning phase,” he said. Ultimately an action plan will be released and delivered to communities ensuring the plan is put into effect, he said. The organization is meeting with local leaders to identify barriers and challenges. The effort applies to all sectors, school districts, higher education institutions, healthcare providers, tourism agencies, businesses and government entities -- each group offers a unique perspective for determining the technological challenges and needs, he said.
The newly completed map paves the way for technology which will create new jobs, increase Alaska’s economic competitiveness and offer services that have been previously unavailable to rural areas of the state, said Commissioner Bell. Users can perform tasks like separating federal- and state-owned lands into layers. That helps to pinpoint lands that aren’t occupied, said Brett Legg, a director at Connected Nation. It would do little good to expand broadband to places no one lives, he said. The data would also help providers evaluate the impact of offering service to unserved areas, he said.
Connected Nation encourages public feedback, Mefford said. The map would be constantly updated to be as accurate as possible, Legg said. Millions of data points went into mapping broadband over a state the size of Alaska, Legg said.