Community Broadband Access Map
Presented to the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association
July, 2007
Jean Plymale
Virginia Tech eCorridors Program
www.ecorridors.vt.edu
eCorridors
• The eCorridors program is the outreach arm of Virginia
Tech’s Information Technologies Department
• Created in 2000 as a response to an increasing number
of requests to the University from communities for
information and guidance in developing regional
broadband infrastructures.
The Community Broadband Access Map
Why? Historically and legitimately, service providers resist sharing proprietary
information regarding the geographic location of their Infrastructure and
services.
Originally the brainchild of the director of eC, Brenda van Gelder, the CBAM
was envisioned as a ‘community driven’ approach to mapping regional
residential broadband availability.
As a research tool the purpose of this application is to gain deeper insight into
the state of residential broadband availability in the Blacksburg region (and
beyond. )
The goal is to be able to ‘see’ where broadband services and providers are
available in and around Blacksburg
The CBAM Application
The speed testing component: open-source, network diagnostic tool (NDT) developed
for Internet2: http://e2epi.internet2.edu/ndt
Integrated with the familiar Google Map product, http://maps.google.com,
Speed test and map are tied together by a Java form through which users can measure
their connection speeds (upload and download,) add optional descriptive information
about their connection, (provider, cost, access type) and mark their geographic location
on the map.
Additional data from speed test and service details supplied by the user are collected
behind the scenes for deeper data analysis and more detailed mapping.
Measures the bandwidth along the entire path of the network between the client
and the speed test server.
• Includes areas outside the control of any particular service provider
• Results are topology dependent
Publicly available at: http://www.ecorridors.vt.edu/maps/broadbandmap.php
Over time and with enough data points, localities can use
the CBAM and its associated data in the following ways:
• In areas where the map reveals an abundance of high-speed connectivity,
communities could use the map as a means to attract technology workers and
employers.
• In areas where the map reveals a lack of high-speed connectivity, communities could
use the map to justify the need for competitive service provision and/or the
development of local infrastructure.
• Service providers could use the map as a tool for locating new market areas.
• Citizens could use the map as an input to personal location decisions.
• To inform residents of local broadband conditions and available service providers.
• To provide local oversight of advertised bandwidth compliance; an average of
reported speeds should be close to providers advertised bandwidth capabilities.
… “better mapping of broadband availability, … would enable the public and private
sectors to work together to target underserved areas.” Commissioner Jonathan
Adelstein – July 24, 2007: http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/24380.html (registration
required)
Sample Residential Stats
as calculated from the CBAM speed test data
• Downstream (inbound or S2C) Median = 2.444 mbps
*Speedmatters.org reports the median download speed for the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 1.9
megabits per second (mbps)
• Upstream (outbound or C2S) Median = 430.5 kbps
*Speedmatters.org reports the median upload speed from for the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 371
kilobits per second (kbps)
• Virginia Downstream: Median = 2.712 mbps
*Speedmatters.org reports the median download speed in Virginia was: 2.394 mbps
• Virginia Upstream: Median = 466.235 kbps
*Speedmatters.org reports the median upload speed in Virginia was: 560 kbps
Median: the middle number of a group of numbers; that is, half the numbers have values that are greater than the median, and half
the numbers have values that are less than the median. For example, the median of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 4.
* http://www.speedmatters.org/document-library/sourcematerials/sm_report.pdf
Sample Residential Stats
as reported from the CBAM service details
• Most common residential access type reported: DSL
• Of those who responded to the Rate Connection
question:
89% rated their connections as adequate
11% rated their connections as inadequate
Considerations
• Citizen input = data points = ability to make generalizations
• Markers are only as accurate as the user allows
• A single speed test is not a fair assessment ; speed test results vary w/ time
of day, network congestion, where the client is and where the speed test server
is.
• Limitation: NDT not designed for ‘dial-up’ but does work – very slowly
• Not everyone is familiar with ‘familiar’ products: Google Maps, Java etc.
• Compromises had to be made; precision, accuracy, cost and privacy
• Other popular bandwidth speed tests include:
http://www.speedmatters.org/speed-test/?src=homebutton
http://www.dslreports.com/stest
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
http://myspeed.visualware.com/
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/
http://www.speedtest.net/
Attracted the interest of:
• Congressmen Rick Boucher; D-VA-9th District
• Local private sector service providers
• Other states
• Federal agencies: National Association of Telecommunications Officers and
Advisors
• Policy experts including Drew Clark of The Center of Public Integrity, Well
Connected Project: See Media Tracker, a free, zip code level media
tracking service http://www.openairwaves.org/telecom/
Next Steps – Solicit input
• Next BETA release, new variables, automated
analysis
• Replace forum with some other mechanism
• Deeper data analysis, new reports and maps
• What information would be useful for you
• Exploit networking details NDT offers
Questions and/or Comments?
Contact Jean Plymale
vplymale@vt.edu
540-231-2270
www.ecorridors.vt.edu