Seems the efforts to map broadband access in Texas is getting things a little heated up in the Lone Star State. With the initial roll-out of the map, data shows that some 96 percent of Texas households have access to home broadband service (provided by 123 broadband service providers), but 1 million homes in the state do not.
There are some critics of the map and the mapping initiative funded by the Feds according to The Dallas Business Journal… Todd Baxter, vice president of government affairs and general counsel of the Texas Cable Association said the mapping is part of a $7.2 billion national broadband stimulus plan being administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications Information Administration. “The map shows that less than 1 percent of all Texans cannot access some form of broadband, whether, wired, wireless or mobile,” Baxter said. “Yet – without this information – the federal government awarded more than $200 million in grants and loans to projects in Texas. Some of these projects propose to duplicate service in an area already served by multiple broadband providers.”
For more on this initiative, see the recent PR – ESRI’s BroadbandStat Puts Interactive Maps Online