Shouldn’t Broadband Mapping Data Belong to the Public?

My biggest pet peeve about the Federal Communications Commission's mapping is that the agency made the decision to give power over the mapping and map challenge process to CostQuest, an outside commercial vendor. The FCC originally awarded CostQuest $44.9 million to create the broadband maps. Many people think that was an exorbitant amount, but if this was the end of the mapping story, fine. Unfortunately, the FCC gave CostQuest the ability to own the rights to the mapping fabric—the database that shows the location of every home and business in the country that is a potential broadband customer. This means that CostQuest, a private company, controls the portal for data needed by the public to understand who has or doesn’t have broadband. I'm flabbergasted that there is a private company that holds the reins to the database of broadband availability and I can’t think of even one reason why the database created by CostQuest is not openly available to everybody.