Key Broadband Map Contract Finalized for Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric

CostQuest Associates said it has officially been contracted to provide broadband location data needed to update the National Broadband Map. The Federal Communications Commission selected the company months ago but the contract award was delayed because LightBox, another company that bid on the contract, protested the decision. According to CostQuest, the US Government Accountability Office denied the protest in late February 2022. The company said that although the protest delayed the project timeline, the first version of the location data, to be known as the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (BSLF), will be delivered later in 2022. The BSLF is designed to include the precise location of all broadband serviceable locations nationwide. As CostQuest explained, the BSLF “will be used to match broadband provider submissions of service availability, and other information, to build more granular broadband location maps.” The FCC recently gave providers a deadline of September 1, 2022, for submitting their service availability data.