The Consequences of a Broadband Deployment Report With Flawed Data

The Federal Communications Commission is required by law to initiate a notice of inquiry and report annually on whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. This annual broadband report is incredibly important because the findings and conclusions are designed to help Congress and the FCC develop policies that ensure all Americans have robust broadband access. Reports with inaccurate data on broadband availability can skew the findings and prevent unserved and underserved areas from gaining access to broadband. The public has not yet seen the draft 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, but the FCC published a news release about the key findings. Based on the few statistics cited in the release, the FCC concluded that access to modern broadband networks has narrowed substantially and broadband is being deployed in a reasonable and timely basis. There are serious concerns with these findings. There are obvious problems with the reported data, and the FCC’s conclusion ignores the reality that millions of Americans still live without access to broadband. The FCC must be honest with the American people about the true state of broadband deployment. It is hard to grapple with the idea that broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion because it clear to millions of Americans that it is not.