Averting a Mapping Disaster?

Alan Davidson, the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), stated that the agency is canceling plans to use the first iteration of the new Federal Communications Commission maps that the agency says will be available by early November 2022. Davidson says that he feels obligated to let the FCC’s challenge process play out before using the mapping data in hopes of greater accuracy from the maps. This decision will clearly add more time and delay to the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. I’m sure this wasn’t an easy decision, but it says that it’s better to hold out for a more accurate map rather than settling for the first iterations of the new FCC maps. This decision will clearly add more time and delay to the $42.5 billion BEAD grant program, but the decision to wait recognizes that using incorrect maps would almost inevitably mean lawsuits that could delay the grant program even longer. I guess we’ll find out in a few months how the first draft of the maps turns out. I expect there are a whole lot of folks who are poised to compare the new maps to their local knowledge of actual broadband usage – and then the challenges will begin.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]