About.  The Broadband Data Improvement Act (“BDIA”) requires the Commission to collect and examine data on the extent of broadband service capability in other countries as part of its annual consideration of whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans on a reasonable and timely basis as required by the Communications Act. To fulfill this mandate, the BDIA requires the Commission to compare the extent of broadband service capability (including data transmission speeds and price for broadband service capability) in a total of 75 communities in at least 25 countries abroad for each of the data rate benchmarks for broadband service utilized by the Commission to reflect different speed tiers.

The BDIA directs the Commission to choose international communities comparable to U.S communities with respect to population size, population density, topography, and demographic profile, and include a geographically diverse selection of countries; and communities including the capital cities of such countries. Congress also has mandated that as part of the international comparison, the Commission identify a number of specific similarities and differences in each community, including their market structures, the number of competitors, the number of facilities-based providers, the types of technologies deployed by such providers, the applications and services those technologies enable, the regulatory model under which broadband service capability is provided, the types of applications and services used, business and residential use of such services, and other media available to consumers.

Archive.  Archive of released International Broadband Data reports.

Statute.  The full text of the Broadband Data Improvement Act.

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