Data collection is considered central to developing policies that could boost high-speed deployment, particularly in rural areas. But the FCC has faced growing scrutiny for assuming that one subscriber in a five-digit ZIP code indicates the entire area has access to service.

Markey is spearheading bipartisan legislation that would require the FCC to collect data within smaller, nine-digit ZIP codes and create a nationwide connectivity map. The measure would require the FCC to stop defining broadband as 200 kilobits per second and instead characterize it as two megabits per second, which still would lag transmission rates common in Great Britain and Japan.

Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas, and Joe Barton of Texas, the Energy and Commerce Committee's top Republican, among other members, questioned whether the government should determine the speed of broadband or let the marketplace do so.

Subcommittee ranking Republican Fred Upton of Michigan supports the overall legislation but has doubts about amending the current definition.

Witnesses generally were supportive of the draft, though some had concerns. Walter McCormick, president of the U.S. Telecom Association, whose members include the Bell telephone companies, endorsed the nationwide mapping idea but expressed opposition to recalibrating the existing transmission standard.

"Our industry supports the thrust of the discussion draft," said Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Nevertheless, he urged lawmakers not to define broadband concretely because the technology is rapidly changing. "What makes sense today may well look strange a couple years from now," he said. In two to three years, cable systems plan to offer wideband modems exceeding 100 megabits a second, he noted.

"Good data is the foundation of good policy," testified Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. "We desperately need a national policy to reverse the fact that our nation -- the country that invented the Internet -- has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband adoption."

Ben Scott, policy director at the watchdog Free Press, said the FCC's data is too limited. "We cannot evaluate problems that we don't measure or study," he emphasized, warning that up to 10 percent of Americans lack access to terrestrial-delivered broadband. He echoed complaints that Americans pay more than citizens of other nations for broadband with slower connections.

"We support the chairman's objective," said Steve Largent, president of the wireless association CTIA, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma who once sat on the subcommittee. He suggested several tweaks to the bill designed to better reflect the role that wireless carriers play in providing high-speed access.