The Federal Communications Commission has made clear that its just-released newest broadband availability map is not the end product, but as chair Jessica Rosenworcel put it, “another step forward in its iterative effort to develop the best and most accurate broadband maps ever built in the United States.”

The FCC has been under pressure, both external and self-imposed, to improve its collection and representation of data on where broadband is and isn't. The Biden administration put an exclamation point on that by making universal broadband by decade's end a priority.

Rosenworcel said the new maps show that more than 8 million homes and businesses “still don't have access to high-speed broadband,“ including 330,000 more unserved locations than the previous map showed.

WISPA, the wireless ISP association, had a slightly different take on that figure, pointing out that “[t]he FCC’s new broadband map tells the success story of the vibrant and growing ISP broadband industry — one working 24/7/365 to almost halve the number of unserved locations since 2020. Down from nearly 14 million unserved to 8 million today.”

Also Read: The FCC Broadband Map Will Be Wrong — But It Was Always Going To Be

Rosenworcel said the iterative improvements in mapping will continue with twice-yearly updates, with incremental updates in between, as it has been making for most of this year.

INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks association, which represents both competitive carriers and some edge providers pushing for universal broadband, urged the FCC on in its iterative quest for better mapping.

“INCOMPAS is pleased to see the latest version of the FCC’s National Broadband Map and the improvements that have been made since its original release in November,” INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering said. “The revised maps will be essential in assisting [the National Telecommunications & Information Association] in determining state allocations for the BEAD Program.”

The NTIA is the Biden administration’s chief communications policy arm and is overseeing billions of dollars in various broadband subsidy programs, including the Broadband Equity, Access & Deployment (BEAD) program. NTIA has also been a big player on the broadband mapping front, so it also drew criticism for the lack of accurate maps.

Groups representing the nation’s libraries and other anchor institutions say that the FCC’s new draft broadband map misrepresents public libraries.

The Federal Communications Commission says the map represents the parameters set up by Congress.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, the American Library Association and the heads of state library agencies have planned a press conference for Wednesday (February 1) to unveil a paper, “Missing Pieces: How the FCC’s Broadband Map Misrepresents Public Libraries.”

The piece is missing because the new maps do not include schools, libraries, rural hospitals and community centers, the groups said, which means they may be shut out of a piece of the billions of dollars in subsidies to achieve 100% broadband deployment by decade’s end, a Biden administration goal.

Asked about that “misrepresentation” an FCC spokesperson emphasized the impotance of anchor institutions, but also pointed out that the commission is restricted by statute to measuring mass-market broadband.

“Libraries play a key role in keeping us all connected to the services we rely on for modern life,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We appreciate the continued engagement to ensure that we are all doing our part to make 100% broadband a reality and for spotlighting the role of community anchor institutions in meeting that goal. However, the FCC is fulfilling its duties under the Broadband DATA Act, which directs us to collect data on mass-market services. The map reflects this statutory requirement, as well as the Commission’s longstanding recognition that mass-market services often don’t meet the needs of schools and libraries and instead, they typically subscribe to enterprise services, or services supported through the FCC’s E-rate program.

“The FCC is committed to ensuring the map is as accurate as possible,” the spokesperson continued. “If a community anchor institution, or any other location, is missing we encourage them to file a missing location challenge. If a community anchor institution shown on the map already does subscribe to mass-market services, they can also submit a challenge to correct their building type. We are happy to work with libraries to ensure they understand how they and their patrons can participate in our challenge processes.” ■

A pair of U.S. senators from Nevada said the Federal Communications Commission’s new draft map of broadband availability is “deeply flawed” and could cost their state millions in government subsidies.

The FCC is under orders from Congress to come up with better maps. It released a draft late last year in what the agency has said is an iterative process that will benefit from stakeholder input.

Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats representing Nevada, had plenty of input. They told FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel that “[d]espite a clear mandate from Congress, the draft maps are deeply flawed. As Senators representing Nevada, we are seriously concerned about the Nevada map’s accuracy and potential negative impacts on broadband infrastructure funding for our state.”

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The senators told Rosenworcel that Nevada’s State Broadband Office also had concerns about the FCC’s process for challenging the maps, saying it is “based on assumptions that put the onus on consumers to proactively engage with providers, rather than practical access to high-speed internet for consumers or technological realities.”

It is not Rosen’s first bite at what she suggests is a bad apple. She was a lead signatory on an earlier, bipartisan letter to Rosenworcel also questioning the maps’ accuracy.

In November 2022, the FCC released the first draft of its new broadband availability maps meant to more accurately represent broadband coverage as the Biden administration pushes tens of billions of dollars toward its universal broadband pledge.

The maps show location-level information about broadband availability, an upgrade from the census-level data the FCC had previously collected and which had allowed some broadband dead zones to appear live if they were in census blocks with service elsewhere. ▪️

Congressional Research Service, which provides such service to members of Congress, has outlined a host of potential issues with the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband mapping process and the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, and made some suggestions of what Congress may have to do in response.

In an “In Focus” report on the impact of the FCC’s National Broadband Map on BEAD and its $42.5 billion dollars in broadband subsidies, CRS said that among the issues for states and smaller internet service providers are contractual obligations, the resources to challenge the FCC map, and the number of challenges already filed, and potential lawsuits.

The FCC recognizes that the map, a draft of which was released to the public, is an iterative process and sought input on where it might miss the mark on where broadband is and isn't.

The FCC has already received “thousands” of challenges from individuals, according to chair Jessica Rosenworcel.

Also: FCC Launches New Broadband Map

According to CRS, contractual issues involve states' use of data vendors, which may hinder their ability to challenge the FCC's map because if they have leased data they want to use to challenge, there may be use restrictions. “Thus, states may not end up challenging the National Broadband Map — or if they do challenge, they may violate their contract and face legal jeopardy,” CRS said, citing Montana Department of Administration chief data officer Adam Carpenter.

Carpenter also said some of those vendors may be concerned that the third-party vendor the FCC employed to help it come up with the map's location fabric could use that data for their own commercial purposes.

The resource challenge was illustrated by New York state’s October submission of over 31,000 unserved or underserved addresses that the map had not accurately identified. New York clearly had the resources to ferret those out, but CRS points out that other states don’t have such deep pockets. New Mexico, for example, signaled it did not have the staff to fix its map problems by January 2023. Without those fixes, it said, it could miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidy money.

Among CRS’s suggestions for congressional actions are hearings, potentially mandating an extension to the challenge process, and seeking comment on its eventual resolution of challenges.

The FCC has signaled it wants to resolve map challenges by early 2023 so NTIA can meet its June 2023 timeline for handing out subsidy money to states. NTIA has asked states and territories to submit their challenges by January 13, 2023. 

A bipartisan group of legislators has already reached out to the FCC and NTIA asking for that challenge extension.

The senators want the FCC to extend the deadline for challenges by “at least” 60 days — to March 14, 2023. ■

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee wants stakeholders to have more time to challenge the accuracy of the Federal Communications Commission’s new broadband availability map given what they said were the "significant flaws" already discovered in the draft map.

That came in a letter Thursday (December 22) to FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel and National Technology and National Telecommunications and Infrastructure Administration chief Alan Davidson from more than a dozen senators, led by Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

Last month, the FCC released its first draft of a new broadband availability map meant to more accurately represent broadband coverage as the Biden administration pushes tens of billions of dollars toward its universal broadband pledge.

The agency has been working on gathering better data — officially its Broadband Data Collection (BDC) effort — under orders from Congress in the Broadband DATA Act and on its own dime.

The FCC has conceded the mapping is an iterative process that will be improved by stakeholder challenges.

The FCC was charged by Congress to come up with better maps and NTIA is supposed to use that information to hand out those tens of billions of dollars in broadband subsidy money targeted to where that money is needed most.

Also: FCC Unveils New Broadband Map

Given that dual FCC/NTIA effort, the legislators said, “it is absolutely critical that states, tribes, localities, and stakeholders have the necessary time to help ensure that the FCC’s final maps accurately reflect unserved and underserved areas.”

The senators want the FCC to extend the deadline for challenges by “at least” 60 days — to March 14, 2023.

The legislators cited some examples where the FCC maps don't jive with a Microsoft analysis of where broadband is and isn't, and are clearly troubled by the disparity. For example, they say, in Washington state, 60% of the residences and businesses in one town on Tribal lands were missing from the FCC map, while in Mississippi, the state broadband office says a “tremendous amount” of addresses were missing in “high-growth” areas.

“Based on this initial review, it is clear that states and local communities need more time to review and analyze the maps and submit challenges to the data than the six weeks (which cover the busy holiday season) currently provided,” the senators wrote. ▪️

Even as the Federal Communications Commission was voting to take concrete steps to combat digital discrimination — including proposing to sanction inadvertent as well as intentional inequities in broadband service — NCTA-The Internet & Television Association said the regulator’s new maps show that the highest of high-speed broadband service is being distributed equitably.

NCTA, the main cable industry group, said that one clear takeaway from the maps, which it concedes are in the early stages of an iterative process, is that gigabit-speed service is being deployed equitably "regardless of income level or racial composition."

NCTA said its analysis confirms that cable operators "have deployed and upgraded high-speed networks within their footprints regardless of demographics, in both urban and rural areas."

Cable critics have long made claims of digital "redlining."

Also: FCC Task Force Draws Line Against Broadband ‘Redlining’

The FCC, at the direction of Congress, created an "all-of-agency" task force to address digital equity issues and also told the FCC it must adopt rules, which is what the FCC proposed to do this week.

But NCTA said its analysis of the FCC data suggests that, at least when it comes to gigabit service, that equity goal is already being achieved without FCC rules.

"There is virtually no difference in cable gigabit availability based on the racial composition of a given area," NCTA said, adding that it was the same with income levels, with similar 95% of all locations having access to gigabit broadband regardless of income or ethnicity.

The "bottom line," NCTA said, is: "[G]overnment data shows that providers have a track record of deploying their fastest services ubiquitously to communities they serve regardless of income level or race.

"While there is more work ahead in connecting remaining unserved communities and bringing broadband to all, smart, targeted funding combined with cable’s decades of experience in building powerful networks throughout our communities can help America bridge the digital divide." ▪️

As promised, the FCC has released its first draft of a new broadband availability map meant to more accurately represent broadband coverage as the Biden administration pushes tens of billions of dollars toward its universal broadband pledge.

The map shows location-level information about broadband availability, an upgrade from the census-level data the Federal Communications Commission previously collected and which had allowed some broadband dead zones to appear live if they were in census blocks with service elsewhere.

The FCC has signaled the maps are an iterative process that will be improved by challenges to errors.

Also: FCC Approves Broadband Label Rules

The better maps were mandated by Congress but the FCC was already at work on improving its broadband data collection, which had been roundly criticized on the Hill.

“Today is an important milestone in our effort to help everyone, everywhere get specific information about what broadband options are available for their homes, and pinpointing places in the country where communities do not have the service they need,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said. “By painting a more accurate picture of where broadband is and is not, local, state, and federal partners can better work together to ensure no one is left on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

Those state partners are particularly in need of assistance as they hand out tens of billions in new broadband subsidy money.

Stakeholders who got an early look at the draft maps were generally pleased with what they agreed with the FCC was a first step in an iterative process.

In addition to the map, the FCC also launched an updated version of its speed-test app that broadband subs can use to compare their actual mobile broadband performance and coverage to their providers’ reported performance and coverage, then submit that info as part of a challenge to the map if their service coverage doesn't measure up. ▪️

The Federal Communications Commission said it will release a first version of its long-awaited, potentially more accurate, revised broadband availability map on Nov. 18, with the Biden Administration saying it would start handing out tens of billions in broadband subsidies mid-2023 based on that presumably better location data.

The commission has been working on gathering better data — officially its Broadband Data Collection (BDC) effort — under orders from Congress in the Broadband DATA Act and on its own dime.

The map is meant to more accurately target the tens of billions of dollars in broadband subsidies that are being given out to achieve the Biden administration’s pledge of universal broadband access by decade's end.

The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the commerce department agency handing out most of those broadband subsidy billions to states, said that given that Nov. 18 date, it would start handing out $40 billion-plus in state broadband subsidies June 30, 2023, as part of the the Broadband Equity, Access and Development (BEAD) program.

"The FCC's upcoming challenge process is one of the best chances to ensure that we have accurate maps guiding us as we allocate major Internet for All awards in 2023," said NTIA chief Alan Davidson. "I urge every state and community that believes it can offer improvements to be part of this process so that we can deliver on the promise of affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service for everyone in America."

Davidson also said it would be best to get those challenges in by Jan. 13 to give entities eligible for the subsidies enough time to challenge and make sure the FCC corrects the map before it starts handing out BEAD allocations.

Also: FCC Previews New Broadband Data Collection Tool

The Nov. 18 release is being billed as a preproduction draft, a first "iteration" that will be revised and refined based on challenges to the map from stakeholders and individuals. The FCC signaled it would also accept "bulk" challenges from states, tribal governments and others.

The difference between the current map and past iterations that have drawn criticism for alleged inaccuracies is that, formerly, the maps were based on broadband availability at the census block level, which the FCC says allowed unserved locations to be "hidden" within census blocks with service elsewhere.

Also: Senators Say FCC Should Diversify Broadband Mapping Data

The current map combines availability data with more specific "location fabric" data that, official and stakeholder fingers crossed, will result in a more accurate picture.

Cable broadband operators, local governments and others who wanted to challenge that location data as part of the BDC have been able to do so since September as the FCC prepared to release the map draft.

NTIA says it called every ISP in the country to remind them of their BDC reporting obligations.

"It is nice to see the FCC move quickly to produce the map, which will both add important information and ultimately help create accurate and granular maps relied upon by the NTIA and the states for the BEAD program," said a spokesperson for WISPA, which represents fixed wireless internet service providers, equipment suppliers and support services. "WISPA and its membership are eager to ensure the maps achieve their underlying purpose – to direct coverage in a manner that is not wasteful, avoids needless overbuilding, and quickly gets broadband to all of the unserved and underserved." ▪️

Could complicated cartography interrupt the nation’s quest to close the digital divide? It certainly seems that way.

Last year, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which included $42.5 billion for states to spend on broadband access through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. There was widespread concern, though, that existing FCC broadband maps did not show coverage in a way that made it possible to target subsidies to unserved areas.

Why does this matter? Because if an area is considered “served,” it won’t qualify for federal subsidies, and people who lack broadband access get left out. Hence the heated debates about the maps.

Congress thus ordered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create much more detailed maps so that the BEAD money could be deployed where it is most needed.

But Congress’s order has an inherent flaw: The assumption that any single map can precisely and accurately display up-the-minute broadband coverage. Specifically, the order reveals three problems.

First, all data has errors. It is unavoidable. Even a completed map that happened to be correct for a moment would become immediately obsolete: New broadband deployments take place by the day, and thus a street that was previously offline could be online by the time you’re done reading this column.

Second, creating a map from data requires making assumptions, and those assumptions have policy implications. Consider the fundamental problem with the current FCC maps: If an ISP serves a single home in a census block, the entire block shows up in the public data as “served,” causing the map to overstate coverage. In a dense city, the block-level estimate of coverage is probably about right since census blocks can be as small as a single apartment complex. If one apartment in a building is served, odds are all the others are, too. But not so for rural or remote areas, where census blocks can stretch for miles. One little house on the prairie with coverage does not mean the others in the block have it.

Congress essentially ordered the FCC to minimize problems created by assumptions needed to aggregate data by collecting connectivity information on every home and business in the country.

Much like pulling up a blanket that’s too short to keep your face warm, thereby exposing your feet, increasing the granularity will result in a lot more errors in the data.

To its credit, Congress seems to have anticipated the existence of measurement error and included a challenge process to the maps in the legislation. This allows anyone to dispute the FCC’s coverage map in order to find and fix these errors.

But the challenge process reveals the third problem: Because money follows the maps, they are inherently political. Not surprisingly, even before the maps debut, everyone with skin in the broadband game is gearing up to contest them.

States want the maps of their territory to show lots of unserved areas in order to, as one consultancy put it, “make sure they don’t miss out on their rightful share of funding.” Internet service providers, meanwhile, are wary of areas they already serve showing up as unserved because a flood of federal funding into those regions threatens their business.

No matter how much effort the FCC puts in -- and by all accounts it has its collective nose to the grindstone -- the one-map-to-rule-them-all effort is an attempt to achieve the impossible.

What’s the alternative? First, we need to drop the belief that 100% accuracy is possible and also recognize that we don’t need a “map,” per se, but data on connectivity. Once we start thinking of it that way it becomes easier to understand that we’re not trying to make pretty pictures. Error and uncertainty are inevitable, but knowing something about that error helps us address it.

Better and more up-to-date information can come from harmonizing existing data sets about internet access, updated whenever a given map has new information. Private sector entities, think tanks, other federal agencies, and states themselves have spent years mapping digital connectivity. Blending those maps together will yield a more accurate picture of America’s digital divide than the FCC’s go-it-alone effort.

Indeed, that’s how third parties will contest the FCC’s maps: By using their own versions and crowing about the discrepancies. But this presents the FCC with an opportunity: Get ahead of those disputes by incorporating as much of that existing information as possible -- and creating a more accurate description of America’s coverage in the process. 

It is impossible to eliminate the political incentives, but a map derived from multiple sets of data will be better -- and less open to criticism -- than a single-source map built by one agency. Officially recognizing the benefits of third-party data and incorporating it in advance of the challenge process might help BEAD funding move forward and avoid years of unwinnable cartographic debates. ■

Broadcasters are telling the FCC it makes no sense to charge them a portion of the expense for the FCC's congressionally mandated effort to collect better broadband coverage data.

In meetings with the Office of the FCC managing director, according to FCC documents, executives from the National Association of Broadcasters took issue with the way the FCC has structured its proposed 2021 annual regulatory fees, charged to FCC licensees to cover the cost of regulating them--the FCC pays for its operations via those fees.

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NAB is concerned generally with what it says was the third year in a row of "steep" fee increases for broadcasters, "many of whom continued to see revenues decline in FY 2021 due to the economic impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."

But it said the FCC's latest proposed fee increases are even more problematic, citing the "inexplicable" requirement that broadcasters pay part of the $33 million Congress appropriated to pay for the Broadband Data Act, which Congress passed to goose the FCC's effort to collect better data on where broadband service is and isn't.

"Requiring broadcasters to pay for such costs is unlawful and makes no sense when the Broadband DATA Act neither regulates nor benefits broadcasters and the Media Bureau does not appear to be involved in any of the Commission’s rulemaking proceedings implementing its requirements," NAB execs told the FCC staffers.

Read Also: Cable Says Flash Cut to Full DBS Fee

NAB also was not happy that the wireless industry, which has been going gangbusters during the pandemic, is paying a smaller percentage of regulatory fees this fiscal year due to some "questionable" moves by the FCC.

In the past, the FCC has called the FCC’s regulatory-fee process a “frustrating and impenetrable exercise.”

Even as BroadbandNow was releasing a National Broadband Map comparing speeds, the Fiber Broadband Association said it is introducing a Broadband Experience Index which it argues is better. 

The fiber association said its new index gives consumers "a more comprehensive and reliable methodology for comparing broadband services in real-world applications rather than only measuring broadband based on speeds,"  one in which fiber to the home comes out on top.

The index includes data on reliability, bandwidth, and latency in addition to downstream and upstream speeds. To come up with those factors for its metric, the association says it polled over 2,000 broadband customers who get broadband from a variety of sources, including fiber optic and coaxial cable, wireless, satellite, and DSL. 

Association president Lisa Youngers said the index determined that fiber provided "best in class" service in terms of both reliability and speed. 

The association included the new index in replay comments to the FCC this week on its proposed funding of rural broadband buildouts to make the case for favoring fiber for its better performance and greater consumer satisfaction.