The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has recently added Nevada, Louisiana, American Samoa and Puerto Rico to its National Broadband Availability Map (NBAM), bringing its total participation to 40 U.S. states and territories.
The NBAM, a platform that helps visualize federal, state and commercially available data sets, provides participants with tools to better analyze broadband availability and make informed decisions on funding distribution, a Dec. 27, 2021 NTIA press release said.
“With more states joining NBAM, NTIA is another step closer to creating a national platform that can help inform policymakers and expand Internet coverage across the United States,” the press release said.
Data for NBAM is provided by several organizations including the “Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Census Bureau, Universal Service Administrative Company, USDA, Ookla, Measurement Lab, BroadbandNow, White Star, and the state governments,” the release said.
In addition to NBAM, the NTIA also released a digital map in June 2021 called the Indicators of Broadband Need (IBN) tool, the release said. IBN is the first interactive map made available to the public, being provided to inform people of the current digital divide facing underserved communities and “the connection between poverty and lack of broadband access or use.”
The IBN aggregates data obtained by NBAM to demonstrate broadband needs nationwide, the release said. The map can be found at broadbandusa.maps.arcgis.com.
