How a controversial new broadband map may finally bring fast internet to everyone in America

The newly signed Broadband DATA Act calls for the Federal Communications Commission to develop a more detailed and accurate map that reflects more granular and accurate data about broadband markets. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has complained that his agency would need more time and money to abandon its current mapping method and adopt a new one that fits the requirements of the bill. “At this point, it is vital for Congress to provide the FCC as soon as possible with the appropriations necessary to implement the Act,” Chairman Pai said recently. “Right now, the FCC does not have the funding to carry out the Act, as we have warned for some time. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel isn’t sympathetic. “The FCC has sat on this for a long time,” she said. “The FCC needs to get to work and stop hemming and hawing about how we need more money or about how it’s impossible.” “Congress has tasked us to do a job, so let’s get to work,” she said.

Even if the FCC gets to work on creating new maps immediately, it’s going to take a while to comply with the law, said Dan Hays, who is the corporate strategy leader for US technology, media, and telecommunications at PwC. “[I]t may well take several years to see a comprehensive solution,” Hays said. “From here, the FCC will need to determine the data that will need to be gathered, the systems that will be used to collect and present it, and the procedures and rules for gathering, updating, and distributing the combined information.”