Telecoms balk at broadband mapping requirements

It would seem that the push and pull between government officials trying to get sound data about broadband deployment and the providers who aren’t too eager to divulge their trade secrets continues.

Dow Jones is reporting that leading industry associations, including US Telecom, NCTA and CTIA are appealing to the director of the National Telecommunications Information Administration to relax the level of detail the agency is requesting from the providers.

Those are trade secrets, they claim, sensitive, competitive data.

Curiously, mapping is one of the more controversial aspects of the broadband fracas. Just try mentioning the name “Connected Nation” around a group of open Internet activists. It’s a “telecom front group,” they claim, run by former telecom execs for current telecom execs.

As part of the economic stimulus package, Congress allocated $350 million to fund the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which directed federal and state agencies to get better data about who the prices and speeds of service are available in different regions, information which is pivotal to any sober assessment of broadband competition.