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Comment by saulrh | Hacker News Reader

The most important part of this, in my opinion, is an easily-missable detail at the bottom: every one of these labels will come with a unique identifier to a database of broadband plans, presumably one maintained by the FCC alongside the numbers on these labels. That's huge. The FCC will be using that to look at Internet access and fairness and everything related to broadband access. It's the equivalent of the hospital billing data but for Internet. Really looking forward to what broadband access numbers in the country really look like when there's a centralized database that you're not allowed to lie on.

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Lies, damn lies, and statistics. As long as the data is broken down by zip code, and not street-by-street, broadband competition and thus access will still be made up of lies large corporations tell the FCC. Where the FCC really needs teeth is to be able to hold those corporations to the advertised rates. If a speed test can't give the advertised maximum numbers, FCC fines should land on the companies advertising those rates.

It is already broken down block-by-block. See https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home

However, Xfinity has already got in trouble for inaccurate data. Then what happens is you can challenge the data - for your address only. Then Xfinity will deny your challenge (they've got caught just doing an automatic denial), and then you have to appeal it. And once your appeal is upheld, ONLY your address is updated, not the block, or anything else.

I've done at least 30-50 challenges; largely for my neighborhood and surrounding area. It's a tedious process, but worth holding those accountable that should be held accountable.

FWIW, I've won every single challenge, and it was a fairly simple process.

> As long as the data is broken down by zip code

ZIP+4 solves this to some extent, if anybody bothered to actually use it.

The post office changes the +4 numbers ever few months. Those who use ZIP+4 get a discount in their postage rates, but they are required to update their address database on a regular basis. For most of us though ZIP+4 is completely impractical to use and there is no advantage so we don't use it.

This isn't true. The FCC broadband map can identify individual postal addresses, indicating what is and isn't available at that specific location. I have personally used this to identify false information that was provided by some nearby ISPs to try and inflate their numbers.

Challenging these is a very easy process and requires that the ISP respond within 30 days. I've won all my challenges; basically correcting my entire extended neighborhood from false information. (Some ISPs do this for grant money reasons)

Sad that due to politicking we couldn't get Gigi Sohn in, so we get Eric J. Troutman instead: https://tcpaworld.com/2023/04/01/its-official-u-s-president-...

More on Gigi Sohn: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23599075/gigi-sohn-fcc-ne... and https://www.theverge.com/23437518/biden-fcc-gigi-sohn-fox-ne...

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