Colorado’s effort to attract more federal broadband funding seems to be working

In a mad scramble to verify a map that will be used to determine Colorado’s share of federal broadband funding, state officials trying to meet a Jan. 13, 2023 deadline made nearly 15,000 challenges in three weeks. The majority were accepted. Of those, about 13,000 were submitted for incorrect addresses, the wrong number of units in a building, and other inaccurate information. So far, 6,700 location challenges were accepted. But more critical were “availability” challenges submitted by the state, partly thanks to Coloradans who submitted their own protests, that provided evidence that internet service was either much slower than advertised, too expensive, or not available when ordered. An accurate Federal Communications Commission national broadband map is critical if Colorado wants every federal dollar available to improve subpar internet service for its rural and urban households. Corrections were added in 41,960 new locations between versions one and two of the national broadband map, thanks to the input from Colorado. That could translate into millions of additional dollars, said Brandy Reitter, executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office.