Rural ISPs struggling to meet FCC mapping deadline

Small broadband providers in the rural US are scrambling to meet a September 1 deadline to submit coverage data to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or risk being locked out of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program (BEAD). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel opened the agency's broadband data collection portal on June 30. The data requested will inform the first draft of a new federal broadband coverage map, which states will then have the opportunity to challenge with their own data. Ultimately, the final FCC map will be used to determine how much funding each state gets from BEAD, beyond its initial $100 million allocation. Providers that fail to submit data will be ineligible for BEAD grants. Rural and small-town telecommunication companies are concerned, as many providers struggling to meet the deadline. Smaller broadband providers feel overwhelmed, citing resource constraints and difficulty correcting woefully incorrect and crash-prone federal mapping software, called "The Fabric". Small and rural providers look to the FCC for a grace period for submitting data to avoid being locked out. Overall, with massive federal and state funding being pooled behind the BEAD program, small and rural broadband providers are scrambling to readily position themselves to improve FCC maps, and remain competitive in securing federal dollars.