This report on the availability of broadband, authored by NTIA, is the first in a series of Broadband Briefs that uses publicly available data collected by the Department of Commerce to examine broadband availability in greater detail.  This report uses current data from the June 30, 2012 State Broadband Initiative (SBI) dataset, which is the same data that populates the National Broadband Map (NBM), as well as historical data from June 2010 and June 2011. NTIA, in collaboration with the FCC, and in partnership with the 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia, updates the SBI data and publishes the NBM twice a year.  This report examines broadband availability, from the most basic speed levels, which allow a user to access several basic web tools, to the fastest speeds, for which developers are now beginning to design applications.