FCC Announces Inaugural Broadband Data Collection Filing Dates

All facilities-based providers of fixed and mobile broadband Internet access service can begin to submit broadband availability data under the new rules and procedures for the Broadband Data Collection beginning on June 30, 2022. Filers must submit data depicting deployment as of June 30, 2022, and must submit the data by September 1, 2022. The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Data Task Force and the Office of Economics and Analytics are providing this Public Notice more than six months in advance of the September 1, 2022 filing deadline. They do so notwithstanding a provision of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) alleviating the FCC of any obligation to provide this amount of notice, and instead requiring only that the FCC “provide notice to broadband providers not later than 60 days before the initial deadline for submission of data” in the Broadband Data Collection. The FCC wants to give as much advance notice as possible to broadband service providers and filers of verified availability data prior to the reporting date and the opening of the filing window—and emphasize that any requests for waivers or extensions of the filing deadline will “face[] a high hurdle even at the starting gate."