Emailing "Union Measures Connection Speeds, Lobbies for a National Broadband Policy"
The Communications Workers of America are measuring upload and download speeds on their [Speed Matters](http://www.speedmatters.org/) blog, created to argue for a national broadband policy. The speed tests appear to show that service is lacking in some areas of the U.S.
The site breaks down the data [state by state](http://www.speedmatters.org/pages/state.html).
Since the U.S. is falling behind, the CWA, which has an obvious interest in more broadband, has listed [four principles ](http://www.speedmatters.org/why/principles.html)for a national broadband strategy: universal service, higher speeds, free speech with network management, and the reporting of deployment, actual speed, and actual price.
This project appears to compete with the broadband census that I [wrote about in April](http://blog.isp-planet.com/blog/2008/04/take-the-broadband-census.html). The broadband census is not as slick. At the moment, I [cannot view its data](http://broadbandcensus.com/zipcodes/states). But it does have a great news feed.
The FCC remains hypocritical on this issue. The Broadband Census page [points out ](http://broadbandcensus.com/blog/?p=395)that "According to its semi-annual report released in March 2008, the Federal Communications Commission states that there are no ZIPcodes in Alaska that are without a broadband provider, as of June 30, 2007, yet the map provided by the FCC portrays large swaths of parts of Alaska as 'zero delivery areas.'"
A lot pf people are arguing for a national broadband policy, and some are arguing against it. We'll present both arguments at ISPCON in a [session](http://www.ispcon.com/conference/sessionsbyday.php#B4) pitting Bruce Mehlman against Dewayne Hendricks, with Kris Twomey as moderator.