How Good are the New FCC Maps?

There are two ways to judge the Federal Communications Commission's new broadband maps—the mapping fabric and the broadband coverage story. The State of Vermont has already sent a challenge letter to the FCC that says that 11% of the locations in the Fabric don’t match Vermont’s own data. Even worse, Vermont says that 22% of locations it knows about are missing from the FCC map. Vermont also looked at the broadband coverage claims by ISPs. According to the new maps, over 95% of Vermont homes have access broadband to broadband of at least 100/20 Mbps. Vermont created its own broadband maps, which show that only 71% of homes in the state could receive broadband at 100 Mbps or faster at the end of 2021. In looking at the data, the difference seems to come from claims on the new FCC maps that satellite and fixed wireless broadband can reach huge numbers of folks—something that is not true in hilly and wooded Vermont. There also are ISPs that have claimed speeds that are faster than what Vermont believes is being delivered.