How the FCC National Broadband Map Impacts the BEAD Program, Part 3 of 3: Meeting the Urgent Need

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is preparing to enter a crucial phase for the Internet for All initiative. Soon, it will notify states and territories of their BEAD program allocation amounts. Once those notifications are made, states and territories will have 180 days to submit their initial proposals. NTIA is confident it will have the data it needs to take that step when it makes the allocation announcement by June 30. NTIA has seen the work of states, territories, Tribes, municipalities, nonprofits, Internet service providers, individuals, and other stakeholders across the country who have engaged with the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map and provided input to ensure a better picture of Internet availability. To understand the impact of the challenge process and additional work that the FCC and its vendor CostQuest have been doing to improve the map, NTIA analyzed the change in broadband serviceable locations between version 1 and version 2 of the Broadband Fabric. The number of serviceable locations between version 1 and version 2 increased from 113 million locations to about 114 million locations, which accounts for a less than 1% net increase in the total number of broadband serviceable locations across the country.  Note that this net change reflected both additions and subtractions from the fabric—the FCC added nearly three million locations while removing nearly two million for reasons ranging from updated data to the use of more sophisticated tools to identify and remove structures like garages and sheds. This tells us three things: 

1. The changes between version 1 and version 2 of the Fabric were relatively modest, and we can expect that changes between future versions of the FCC map will likely continue to be modest. 

2. These modest changes go both ways. States, territories, and the District of Columbia (“Eligible Entities”) could gain or lose locations from version to version.  

3. If the changes to the total number of broadband-serviceable locations is modest—and at less than 1% they were—then it is likely that the impact on the allocation is modest, because the key variable in the BEAD allocation formula is the number of unserved locations in a state or territory relative to the total number of unserved locations nationwide.