Whoops. Federal Communications Commission chief Ajit Pai admitted that broadband growth numbers announced by the FCC in February were actually inflated by millions, reports Ars Technica. The errors were first published by advocacy group Free Press, which found a new ISP called BarrierFree falsely reported to the FCC that it went from serving zero customers to 20% of the country in six months, contributing to several miscalculations in the February press release (the FCC has yet to release the full Broadband Deployment Report). The corrected FCC press release confirms that the number of Americans without the industry standard of 25 Mbps/3Mbps fixed broadband was 21.3 million in 2017. The FCC also originally overstated the number of rural Americans who gained broadband access and overstated the number of Americans who gained access to 100 Mbps and 250Mbps service.
IN OTHER NEWS: Tampon dispensers, ignored for decades, are practically begging to be disrupted (WALL STREET JOURNAL); Does Slack create slackers? (THE HUSTLE); Airbnb now allows hosts to donate their profits to help displaced people find housing (FAST COMPANY).