Congress Tells FCC to Fix Broadband Maps Now

On March 23, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act. The new law requires the Federal Communications Commission, before the end of the summer, to dramatically reform the nation's problematic broadband deployment maps. The new law resulted from strong bipartisan consensus. The Broadband DATA Act is actually the combination of two bipartisan bills originally introduced in the House of Representatives: the Mapping Accuracy Promotes Services Act (MAPS Act) and the House version of the Broadband DATA Act introduced by Reps. Dave Loebsack (D-IA) and Bob Latta (R-OH), the Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member. Provisions in the MAPS Act explicitly make it unlawful for a person to willfully, knowingly, or recklessly submit inaccurate broadband service data. The Broadband DATA Act requires the FCC to adopt new rules, by September 21, that mandates the biannual collection, verification, and dissemination of granular data relating to the availability and quality of service with respect to terrestrial fixed, fixed wireless, satellite, and mobile broadband internet access service, from which the FCC will compile broadband coverage maps.