The United State(s) of Broadband

Tens of billions of dollars in federal funding are poised for new broadband infrastructure deployment over the next five years. But a crucial step in allocating funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program - for states and local governments - lies in knowing where fast, affordable, reliable broadband access currently is, so that they know where to drive new investment. The Federal Communications Commission’s historical and repeated failure to put together an accurate national broadband map threatens to significantly hold up the process. Even under the best-case scenario, we’re not likely to see better maps for at least a year to come. Unfortunately, we don’t know how the process will shake out quite yet. The new FCC maps represent a significant departure, but many states aren't waiting around and have begun to develop their own broadband maps. In classifying the various state-led efforts, we've developed a new resource we're releasing today to serve as an easy reference guide. It shows how states are going about mapping Internet access, and which ones we think are doing it better than others. We’re calling it our United State(s) of Broadband Maps.