
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
How does a community get on this map? This is a map of community networks, and a precondition is that the infrastructure is owned by a local subdivision of government (future versions will also include Tribal networks and telephone and electric cooperatives, which are also publicly owned).
Municipalities get counted when 1) premises have been passed by an active community-owned network, or 2) there are credible reports of money having been committed to a project. If money was allocated in the past but no progress has been made for some time, we revert those municipalities back to inactive status in our database.
Can I see fiber networks only? What about cable networks? Wireless? We track technology at the municipality level, but for this first version of the map rebuild, we opted not to display it. Increasingly, as older networks upgrade from coaxial cable networks to fiber networks, the entirety of this map will trend towards universally showing where community-owned fiber exists in the United States. There will be some instances where those networks serve nearby rural communities with wireless deployments. Our aim is to add technology to this map in the future.
How are business models displayed here? We track all the business models for each network in this map, specifically from the view of the end user. In displaying them at the national level, the business models follow the hierarchy we imagine most people would be interested in. It follows the filter order from top to bottom (Retail > Open Access > Conduit > Institutional Networks > Non-Retail), showing whichever business model sits highest in the list when the network is served by more than one.
Why do some Open Access networks display as Retail networks? We thought it useful for folks to know, from an end-user viewpoint - what else an Open Access network offers. Open Access networks can facilitate wholesale or transport services, but they can also result in retail service to homes and businesses. When an Open Access network has more than one business model attached to it, we display them all in the stat card when you click on those communities.
Do you have a policy about where you get community population statistics from? We're working on connecting directly to census data to simplify things, but at the moment this comes from a simple web search.
Curious about the data driving this map? Questions? Corrections or additions? Email Associate Director for Research, Ry Marcattilio, at [email protected].