Stacey at GigaOm writes Congress is about to "force" the FCC and telcos to regular broadband census measurement. Force is the operative word as telcos and cable companies have resisted measurement even as they say the US is doing fine vis-a-vis the rest of the world. And various states have stepped up their own measurement - around landlines, mobile, not just broadband - in the Federal vacuum. As have organizations such as Consumer Reports and ACSI.
My concern is even if we get the census going, will broadband coverage, speeds and other metrics improve?
The industry has by many benchmarks show a stubborn resistance to improvement. In their January survey Consumer Reports said "cell service among the lower-rated services we survey, as it has been for the past six years." The ACSI scores for landline, cell and cable providers for the last 5 years shows them lower than the US Postal Service - and the average business and family spends way more on cable and phones than they do on postage.