The Strategic Exclusion of Puerto Rico’s Data From the Broadband Deployment Report

The Ajit Pai-led Federal Communications Commission failed to include very important data about the status of broadband availability in the US territories affected by these 2017 disasters in 2019’s Broadband Deployment Report. The FCC specifically said it chose not to report on data from disaster-stricken areas “so that such damage does not artificially deflate progress in deployment and that we can continue to track progress in rehabilitating such networks.” However, the choice not to include disaster-stricken areas is indeed that -- a choice. It’s a choice to artificially inflate the current status of broadband. The decision not to include these disaster-stricken areas speaks to this administration’s failure to properly respond to Puerto Rico’s needs both in the immediate wake of the hurricanes and in the recovery efforts that followed. Public Knowledge, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and Common Cause have previously stated the importance of including disaster-stricken areas in this report and now that time has passed. It is necessary that the Commission release the status of Puerto Rico’s broadband infrastructure.