USTelecom Responds to Cable Entities on Broadband Mapping

USTelecom, the Independent Telephone andTelecommunications Alliance (ITTA) and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) filed a letter on April 12, 2019 on their fixed broadband mapping proposal. They asserted alternatives proposed in recent filings by certain cable entities lack the key unifying component that USTelecom et al are looking to address in their pilot program: a process that will create more accurate broadband location data, which in turn will support far more meaningful and useful broadband availability reporting for communications policy. The group said while they agree submitting shapefiles may be one of several viable methods of reporting broadband coverage, they identified numerous shortcomings with shapefile submissions, including that it will only result in accurate broadband service maps if provider submissions are anchored upon a common template with consistent geocoding of addresses and locations.