FCC Modernizes and Streamlines Broadband and Voice Data Collection

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to change its collection of data about broadband and voice service in the US, taking measures to streamline and reduce the burden on providers. The new collection will improve and expand broadband and voice data, while simplifying the process for providers by:

• Increasing consistency through creating a single, uniform format for deployment data, and replacing the current separate state-by-state voluntary collections under differing methodologies
• Reducing the burden on providers by eliminating certain data collections, including the requirement to file speed data in tiers
• Collecting fixed broadband deployment data by census block, and mobile broadband and mobile voice network coverage areas using a standard geographic information system software format
• Obtaining mobile broadband deployment data by technology, minimum advertised speed, and spectrum band to help assess competition in the mobile wireless marketplace and mobile broadband availability to consumers
• Receiving emergency contact information to expedite agency disaster response
• Collecting company identification information to facilitate merger reviews, assess competition, and combat waste, fraud and abuse in universal service
• Exploring development of an application that providers could use to automate their data-gathering, which would further reduce the burden of collection and improve the quality of the data

Filing of this data is expected to begin in September 2014, reflecting the first six months of 2014.