Verizon, T-Mobile Overstate Claims With $43 Billion at Stake

Tiny Gerlach, NV, looks like the ideal place to receive some of the $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding targeted to provide internet access to underserved areas. There’s just one catch: The town of 161, gateway to the state’s Black Rock Desert, already has broadband access, according to a government map showing that T-Mobile US Inc. provides service there. If that’s true, Gerlach is unlikely to be eligible for help from the once-in-a-generation program. “There is no reliable broadband up there,” insists Washoe County Manager Eric Brown, whose jurisdiction includes Gerlach. “The fact that the maps reflect that is inaccurate.” Wireless providers have exaggerated the breadth and quality of their service — complicating efforts to identify areas in need, according to state and local officials, consultants, and US lawmakers. By doing so, they can block potential rivals from obtaining subsidies and invading their markets. T-Mobile claims its fixed wireless can serve 45 million addresses or more than one-third of the 114 million places listed in the maps when they were revealed last fall. Verizon Communications Inc. said it can reach almost 19 million. According to Christopher Ali, a telecommunications professor at Pennsylvania State University, carriers are allowed to report places they could potentially reach and those they already serve. “They’re reporting hypothetical service, not actual service,” Ali said. The practice follows rules set down by the Federal Communications Commission, yet creates “the false impression of rural and connected America. But we know this is wrong.”