First look: New version of the National Broadband Map

The Federal Communications Commission released an updated National Broadband Map. This is the version of the map that will be used by the NTIA to allocate $42.5 billion in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Overall, as of December 31, 2022, there are 114,537,044 Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) in the country (including territories). That’s a net addition of 1 million BSLs. 7.6% of the BSLs are Unserved, which is 8.67 million, up 808,677 in the 50 states. 3.11% of the BSLs are Underserved, or 3.55 million nationally. There are some surprises. Michigan, for example, lost 71,139 Unserved locations, an 18% decline, which leads to a $416 million lower allocation. North Dakota, Indiana, Florida, Georgia, and South Dakota also have double digit loses in the percentage of Unserved. In some states, the addition of Unserved locations is dramatic. Alaska’s Unserved locations grew 84% to 88,181 increasing their allocation to $166 million. There were a lot of other states with big increases: Nebraska (+225%), Iowa (+124%), Oregon (+70%), Kansas (+61%), and North Carolina (+45%).