BEAD Director to States: You Can Fix Broadband Map Problems

Evan Feinman, director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, said states have the opportunity to correct some of the deficiencies of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map by running their own challenge process. He noted, for example, that “communities will be able to bring forward large numbers of speed tests” – a move that could address concerns about the accuracy of the availability data that service providers are reporting. The FCC currently doesn’t have a process for challenging availability data for locations that a provider serves but not at the speeds the provider claims to offer. Addressing service providers, he said, “You all know where your networks are, and communities know where their locations are, and the only way [this] will work is if [people] buy into that process and engage." Feinman took care not to be critical of the FCC, noting that plans for the big update of the National Broadband Map were made before the adoption of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that created the BEAD program.