Mending the Fabric: FCC Says to File Broadband Location Challenges by March 15- What About BEAD?

The Federal Communications Commission is encouraging state and local governments and broadband providers to file bulk challenges to the commission’s broadband serviceable location database by March 15, 2023. Bulk challenges received by that date are most likely to be addressed in time to be reflected in the next update to the broadband serviceable location database, also known as the “fabric.” The next update to the fabric is scheduled to be available on June 30, 2023. The FCC made its recommendation in a public notice. The notice confirms what we heard from NTIA recently—that the broadband serviceable location fabric will not be updated until June 30. That’s the same date when NTIA plans to announce how much money each state will get from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. In other words, no changes will be made to the locations database in time for the state allocations. The NTIA has denied requests to delay the June 30 date for the state allocations.