This week kicks off the ARRA grant-funded drive testing
project being performed by the CPUC's Video Franchising/Broadband Deployment
group. Every six months through 2014, we will be sending teams to drive
around the state and measure the actual mobile broadband service of the big
four providers, both with smartphones and laptop data cards. We’re
testing at the same designated 1200 points for each test. These results
will help determine the areas of the state that are un-served or under-served by
broadband service, and thus eligible for CASF and various federal broadband
infrastructure grants and subsidies. Our results will also demonstrate the
extent to which mobile broadband service is a substitute for wired service.
The following will give you an idea of the scope and nature
of the project. This
map shows progress on day 1, which was Monday. We expect each round of
tests to take as long as a month to complete. Analysis of the results
could take an additional month.
As the photos taken just before noon today show, we’re
indeed capturing mobile service statistics in some pretty rural areas!
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