With stakes raised by stimulus, foes of broadband-mapping company mount lobbying effort against it

A long-simmering battle between the broadband-information firm Connected Nation and Internet advocates who think it is too close to telecommunications companies gained a higher profile this morning with a story in The Wall Street Journal.

The company is the largest provider of broadband-coverage maps, which have become more important since the federal government put more than $7 billion into expanding broadband and "wants maps that show where the money should go," reporter Amy Schatz writes. "With so much money at stake, Internet providers, state officials and consumer groups are sparring over every detail of the program."

Connected Nation's maps are based on confidential information it gets from telecoms. Critics "worry Connected Nation will use the maps to steer stimulus funds toward its big corporate sponsors, at the expense of smaller players or poorly served areas," Schatz writes. The firm's officials "say Internet providers are the best sources of the data it needs, and say Connected Nation has a 'governance framework' for projects that is independent of its board of directors, which includes executives from cable and phone companies.

The firm's longtime adversary is Art Brodsky, "communications director of Public Knowledge, which has joined with other public-interest groups, including Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, to lobby against Connected Nation," which began life as ConnectKentucky, a public-private partnership that helped expand broadband coverage in the state in the administration of then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican.

Officials of the current Democratic administration in Kentucky pulled $2 million in funding from Connected Nation last year, saying it over-estimated broadband coverage. Brian Mefford, founder and CEO of the firm, told Schatz it has improved its methodologies, corrects errors when notified, and now produces more accurate maps, one of which accompanies Schatz's story. "Regulators in Kentucky and other states, including North Carolina, say they can't verify Connected Nation's data, much of which was protected under nondisclosure agreements," Schatz reports, quoting Mefford: "What we do protect is the information that a provider deems as the most sensitive," typically locations and descriptions of hardware that telecoms have in the field. (Read more)