The FCC is reminding broadband providers that their semi-annual form 477 reporting of broadband deployment is coming due soon.

The FCC's new Office of Economics and Analytics sent out a reminder Tuesday (Aug. 25) that data current through June 30 is due to the FCC by Sept. 1, adding that "accurate and timely submission of FCC Form 477 is mandatory for affected entities.

Related: FCC Says Broadband Deployment Is on Track

Carriers who don't make the deadline could be fined $500 per day until they do.

The FCC is revamping its broadband maps given widespread criticism of the accuracy of the form 477 data, but until then it is still relying on the form 477 data to gauge deployment, access and competition.

The FCC has launched its latest effort to collect data on broadband deployment, that comes even as the commission is creating a new framework for collecting that info given the issues with the current form 477 collection process. 

That new process has not yet been implemented, so while the FCC concedes carrier-supplied Form 477 data may overstate deployment by 3%, "the Commission will need to continue to rely for now on that current Form 477 collection to conduct its annual inquiry under section 706," it said. "This is because, among other reasons, we granted providers six months after the new mapping platform becomes available to submit the new maps. Moreover, we believe that continuing to rely on Form 477 deployment data for now will best enable us to assess the level of deployment by providing a consistent unit of measurement."  

Related: Free Press Finds FCC Broadband Gains Overstated 

The FCC is required by Sec. 706 of the Communications Act to determine if advanced telecommunications is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely manner.  

Previous Democratic-led FCC's had concluded it was not, interpreting the "all" in "all Americas" not to have been fulfilled until everyone had access. Under Pai, the FCC concluded that the steady decrease in unserved Americans is a reasonable and timely fulfillment of that mandate, or what it called a "progress-based" approach to "being deployed." 

The FCC is instructed to regulate to achieve that deployment mandate if it concludes that deployment is not reasonable and timely. In fact, the Tom Wheeler-led FCC cited that Sec. 706 authority in regulating internet access in the 2015 Open Internet Order. 

In the Notice of Inquiry (NOI) released this week, the FCC said it would again take a holistic view of deployment. So, rather than simply look at speeds, it will look at "a range of speeds, provided over both fixed and mobile technologies, to best capture the ways Americans are using advanced telecommunications capabilities." 

FCC chair Ajit Pai said he knows the FCC's work in promoting universal deployment is not done, which is why it continues to reform its universal service broadband deployment programs. As to not being able to use the new data collection framework to improve a collection process that the FCC, Congress and outside groups all agree is flawed, Pai said he would like to be able to " snap our fingers and implement this new data collection immediately. But that’s not the way the real world works....It is simply impossible to get this data collection off the ground and completed before the legal deadline for our next Broadband Deployment Report. Indeed, my dissenting colleagues offer no suggestions at all for how this could possibly get done (if they do have any, I’m all ears)." 

The NOI proposes not to raise the "high-speed" benchmark definition for fixed broadband of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, but sought comment on that proposal. It also sought comment on whether to use various metrics for mobile speeds.  

Related: GOP Leaders Praise FCC Broadband Report 

The vote to issue the Sec. 706 Notice of Inquiry was 3-2, with the Democrats dissenting. 

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called it a "head-in-the-sand commitment to using the same methodology we did last time and a refusal to ask hard questions about what we can do now to ensure our next count is more accurate. Under these circumstances, how can anyone trust what we conclude?" 

She also takes issue with the conclusion that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner. She said that while the FCC has effectively clapped its hands and said "mission accomplished," that is wrong. "Too many Americans lack access to high-speed service at home. Too many communities across the country are struggling to secure the broadband they need for economic revitalization and growth. Too many rural households and tribal areas fear that they may be forever consigned to the wrong side of the digital divide. In too many urban areas, redlining has led to broadband deserts. Plus, too many students across the country fall into the homework gap because they lack the internet access needed for nightly schoolwork." 

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks agrees, saying the majority's decision to measure year-over-year progress "tells us nothing about broadband deployment in areas where carriers haven’t deployed and have no plans to do so. It does little to help us to understand the deepening state of internet inequality in the U.S. and it does nothing to prepare us to address the problem."

The FCC has launched its latest effort to collect data on broadband deployment, that comes even as the commission is creating a new framework for collecting that info given the issues with the current form 477 collection process. 

That new process has not yet been implemented, so while the FCC concedes carrier-supplied Form 477 data may overstate deployment by 3%, "the Commission will need to continue to rely for now on that current Form 477 collection to conduct its annual inquiry under section 706," it said. "This is because, among other reasons, we granted providers six months after the new mapping platform becomes available to submit the new maps. Moreover, we believe that continuing to rely on Form 477 deployment data for now will best enable us to assess the level of deployment by providing a consistent unit of measurement."  

Related: Free Press Finds FCC Broadband Gains Overstated 

The FCC is required by Sec. 706 of the Communications Act to determine if advanced telecommunications is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely manner.  

Previous Democratic-led FCC's had concluded it was not, interpreting the "all" in "all Americas" not to have been fulfilled until everyone had access. Under Pai, the FCC concluded that the steady decrease in unserved Americans is a reasonable and timely fulfillment of that mandate, or what it called a "progress-based" approach to "being deployed." 

The FCC is instructed to regulate to achieve that deployment mandate if it concludes that deployment is not reasonable and timely. In fact, the Tom Wheeler-led FCC cited that Sec. 706 authority in regulating internet access in the 2015 Open Internet Order. 

In the Notice of Inquiry (NOI) released this week, the FCC said it would again take a holistic view of deployment. So, rather than simply look at speeds, it will look at "a range of speeds, provided over both fixed and mobile technologies, to best capture the ways Americans are using advanced telecommunications capabilities." 

FCC chair Ajit Pai said he knows the FCC's work in promoting universal deployment is not done, which is why it continues to reform its universal service broadband deployment programs. As to not being able to use the new data collection framework to improve a collection process that the FCC, Congress and outside groups all agree is flawed, Pai said he would like to be able to " snap our fingers and implement this new data collection immediately. But that’s not the way the real world works....It is simply impossible to get this data collection off the ground and completed before the legal deadline for our next Broadband Deployment Report. Indeed, my dissenting colleagues offer no suggestions at all for how this could possibly get done (if they do have any, I’m all ears)." 

The NOI proposes not to raise the "high-speed" benchmark definition for fixed broadband of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, but sought comment on that proposal. It also sought comment on whether to use various metrics for mobile speeds.  

Related: GOP Leaders Praise FCC Broadband Report 

The vote to issue the Sec. 706 Notice of Inquiry was 3-2, with the Democrats dissenting. 

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called it a "head-in-the-sand commitment to using the same methodology we did last time and a refusal to ask hard questions about what we can do now to ensure our next count is more accurate. Under these circumstances, how can anyone trust what we conclude?" 

She also takes issue with the conclusion that broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner. She said that while the FCC has effectively clapped its hands and said "mission accomplished," that is wrong. "Too many Americans lack access to high-speed service at home. Too many communities across the country are struggling to secure the broadband they need for economic revitalization and growth. Too many rural households and tribal areas fear that they may be forever consigned to the wrong side of the digital divide. In too many urban areas, redlining has led to broadband deserts. Plus, too many students across the country fall into the homework gap because they lack the internet access needed for nightly schoolwork." 

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks agrees, saying the majority's decision to measure year-over-year progress "tells us nothing about broadband deployment in areas where carriers haven’t deployed and have no plans to do so. It does little to help us to understand the deepening state of internet inequality in the U.S. and it does nothing to prepare us to address the problem."

As of the end of 2017, the most recent data the FCC has crunched for broadband deployment and speeds, 85% of residential fixed broadband connections had speeds of at least 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. 

That is according to a just-released FCC accounting of carrier-reported mobile and fixed speeds (form 477) as of December 2017, numbers that could clearly have changed in the intervening almost two years. The FCC has also conceded that the form 477 data has issues. 

               Distribution of Fixed Connections (108.2 million) by Downstream Speed  

With those caveats, the data showed 70% of connections had speeds of at least 25 Mbps downstream/3 Mbps up, and 39% with speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream. The FCC points out that the 25 Mbps upstream speed was up from 44% of connections in 2014. 

California led the way among residential fixed connections of at least 100 Mbps with 4.175 million, followed by New York with 3.287 million and Texas with 2.698 million. Wyoming brought up the rear among states with 17,000. 

The data was released by the FCC's new office of Economics and Analytics. 

Mobile connections showed the greater growth, percentage wise, increasing 4.5% between December 2016 and December 2017. Fixed connections were up about 2% over the same period. 

But the bureau said it believes the mobile connection number remains under reported "by as much as 5%." 

The FCC has recently adopted a new broadband data-collection methodology that should provide more granular broadband deployment data, and more opportunity for that data to be vetted and corrected via crowd-sourcing.

The commission has been under pressure from both sides of the aisle in Congress to improve data collection, and FCC chair Ajit Pai has conceded the data has to get better, particularly so that Universal Service Fund broadband subsidies can be targeted to where they are most needed, furthering his goal of weeding out waste, as well as fraud and abuse, in subsidy programs.

The FCC's new Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireline Competition Bureau have teamed up to launch the commission's 2020 urban rate survey. 

The FCC annually polls a random sample of fixed broadband and telephone providers in urban areas to insure that the carriers and operators receiving Universal Service Fund subsidies to provide those services to rural and hard /or expensive-to-reach areas do so at rates reasonably comparable to those in urban areas. 

The FCC used the 2018 form 477 broadband deployment/availability data to identify the broadband and phone operators serving urban census tracts who are being polled. 

Notices were being sent out to those companies Thursday (July 25), which will need to fill out an online form by Aug. 26.