FCC Mapping and Engineers

Congress created the new Broadband Data Collection (BDC) maps with the passage of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (the Broadband DATA Act). This created the requirement for the new mapping system that replaced the old system of reporting maps called the 477 process. One of the requirements of the Broadband DATA Act is that internet service providers (ISPs) have to engage a professional engineer to certify that the data submitted to the FCC is accurate. There was an instant industry outcry, particularly among smaller ISPs, who said this added additional cost to the process. Many small ISPs said they would have a problem even finding a professional engineer since they designed and built their own networks and didn’t use engineers. The FCC agreed and issued a waiver for the engineering requirement for data due to the FCC in June 2022, December 2022, and June 2023. The FCC issued a second waiver a few years later that covered the December 2023, June 2024, and December 2024 FCC filings. That waiver has now expired, and if the FCC doesn’t issue another waiver this requirement will go into effect with the filing for the June 2025 data. The issue might come to a head this year because the FCC can’t continually make waivers for a requirement created by Congress. By this summer, the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grant process will largely be over in terms of mapping, and there is no longer much incentive for the FCC to continue the waiver.