Geographic dimensions of broadband data uncertainty

Abstract This article reviews sources of uncertainty in broadband provision data from Federal Communications Commission’s Form 477 database, which is the largest publicly available broadband database for the United States. This uncertainty analysis reveals that reporting thresholds result in understating of broadband in rural areas serviced by smaller providers in the 1999–2004 ZIP code area dataset. In this same time series, the routine used to aggregate data to larger spatial units (i.e., counties) produces variations in the amount of autocorrelation detected by diagnostic spatial statistics. The amount of autocorrelation in the data also varies with the strategy implemented for interpolating suppressed data. This investigation also highlights the value of a spatial approach to visualizing and analyzing the impact of uncertainty on broadband availability.

[1]  T. Grubesic.  The Broadband Provision Tensor , 2012 .

[2]  Tony H. Grubesic,et al.  A spatial taxonomy of broadband regions in the United States , 2006, Inf. Econ. Policy.

[3]  Elizabeth A. Mack,et al.  BROADBAND PROVISION AND FIRM LOCATION IN OHIO: AN EXPLORATORY SPATIAL ANALYSIS , 2009 .

[4]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Constructing the divide: Spatial disparities in broadband access , 2002 .

[5]  J. Winkler.  Embracing Complexity and Uncertainty , 2016 .

[6]  Tony H. Grubesic,et al.  The U.S. National Broadband Map: Data limitations and implications , 2012 .

[7]  Tony H. Grubesic,et al.  The spatial distribution of broadband providers in the United States: 1999-2004 , 2008 .

[8]  Elizabeth A. Mack,et al.  Broadband Telecommunications and Regional Development , 2015 .

[9]  J. Prieger.  The Supply Side of the Digital Divide: Is There Equal Availability in the Broadband Internet Access Market? , 2003 .

[10]  T. Grubesic,et al.  Waiting for Broadband: Local Competition and the Spatial Distribution of Advanced Telecommunication Services in the United States , 2004 .

[11]  L. Anselin.  Local Indicators of Spatial Association—LISA , 2010 .

[12]  Mo Xiao,et al.  Does the fourth entrant make any difference?: Entry and competition in the early U.S. broadband market , 2010 .

[13]  Tony H Grubesic,et al.  On the use of ZIP codes and ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) for the spatial analysis of epidemiological data , 2006, International journal of health geographics.

[14]  Elizabeth A. Mack.  Businesses and the need for speed: The impact of broadband speed on business presence , 2014, Telematics Informatics.

[15]  Tony H. Grubesic,et al.  The geodemographic correlates of broadband access and availability in the United States , 2004, Telematics Informatics.

[16]  Alan T. Murray,et al.  Geographies of imperfection in telecommunication analysis , 2005 .