Glossary

BSL, broadband serviceable location

The FCC's unit of counting. Roughly, an address where fixed internet could be delivered. Our county pages count these, not people and not households.

Served, underserved, unserved

The FCC's three coverage categories: at least 100/20 Mbps available, at least 25/3 but below 100/20, and below 25/3 or nothing.

Latency

How long a single request takes to make the round trip, measured in milliseconds. It decides whether video calls, gaming and even ordinary web browsing feel responsive. It is a completely different thing from speed, and in rural internet it usually matters more.

GEO and LEO

Geostationary satellites sit about 22,000 miles up and appear fixed in the sky, which is why one dish pointed one way works, and why latency is high. Low-earth-orbit satellites are a few hundred miles up and move quickly, which is why latency is much lower and why the dish has to track them.

Fixed wireless

Internet delivered by radio from a tower or ridge to an antenna on your building. Needs line of sight. Often the best real option in hilly, thinly populated country.

Licensed and unlicensed

Licensed spectrum is exclusively assigned to one operator, so nobody else can interfere with it. Unlicensed spectrum is shared, which makes it cheaper to deploy and more vulnerable to congestion. The FCC reports coverage on the two separately, and so do we.

Data cap and data priority

A cap stops or charges you after a set amount. Data priority is subtler: you keep working, but you are moved behind other customers, which is why a plan can be "unlimited" and still slow to a crawl.