The state that lost its chair after the music stopped

On first look, the new Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map seems to be a step in the right direction. For example, in Alaska, a known problem area, the number of locations and the estimated amount of money allocated increase significantly. But Michigan is another story. Michigan has 71,139 fewer Unserved locations on the new map versus the old one, by far the biggest decrease in the 50 states. It’s an 18% drop in the number of Unserved locations. And it leads to an estimated decrease of $416 million that Michigan will receive from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, also by far the biggest decrease in the 50 states. The reason is big increases in the coverage areas filed by a few wireless providers. More than two-thirds of the locations that gained broadband coverage according to the broadband provider filings are now Served or Underserved by a fixed wireless provider. Two providers— Mercury Broadband and Point Broadband — each filed with offerings that made almost 40,000 locations per provider move from Unserved to Underserved or Served.