Commissioner Starks Statement on Broadband Deployment Report

The FCC’s limited progress on new broadband maps has left the Commission without highquality, nationwide data on the deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability. It is a shame that we are once again relying on Form 477 data, with all its inaccuracies. At this point, Form 477’s problems are well documented, acknowledged throughout the telecommunications industry, and recognized by bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress. And they are recounted in the 2018 and 2019 iterations of this report. We are all well versed in Form 477’s flaws. The fact that this report must rely on the unreliable should be reflected in its conclusions. I cannot approve the report’s confident declaration that this data constitutes “compelling evidence” that Advanced Telecommunications Capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis. We do not have a strong basis for that conclusion, and we should say so. I therefore respectfully dissent.