The MarkUp: “One of the first things I did upon moving into a new apartment last November was get a better deal on my broadband internet.  To discover what other internet service providers (ISPs) offered service to my building, I used a handy resource that the Federal Communications Commission had just released to the public a few days earlier—a new version of the National Broadband Map. It’s an interactive tool that displays which companies offer connections at every location in the country and the maximum speed for those connections. When I entered my address into the map, I discovered that Astound, a provider I didn’t know about, could offer me the same speeds I was getting from Spectrum, which was already the internet provider for the apartment. A visit to Astound’s website revealed that the company could also give me a cheaper price, which ended up saving me around $27 a month. The National Broadband Map has gotten major updates twice each year for more than a decade with info about which companies provide internet service to a given area. However, until last year, the map only had details for a general area—not for individual addresses. This lack of granularity presented a problem because, as an investigation into the digital divide by The Markup showed, the maximum speed offered by just one provider can vary dramatically from block to block, or even house to house.  The new version of the map tries to identify every location across the country capable of receiving broadband internet service and what level of internet service, if any, a company can provide at that location….”