The National Broadband Map is Getting Better—But We Need to Accelerate Improvements to Drive Better Decisions

We should not take our foot off the gas when it comes to the importance of better mapping, considering it’s at the heart of so much in the rural broadband space. Congress charged the Federal Communications Commission in early 2020 with creating a national broadband availability map. It is only fair to say that the national broadband map is better than any broadband availability dataset before it, and that it keeps getting better. But we are in no position to declare “mission accomplished” or even “good enough” when it comes to the national broadband map. NTCA recently visited the Federal Communications Commission to highlight flaws in the map and make suggestions for how to address them. The suggestions include: 

• Adopt objective Broadband Data Collection (BDC) reporting standards that reflect a network’s proven technological capabilities, so that an ISP’s website advertising isn’t the final arbiter of what is and isn’t available;
• Create public “heat maps” to highlight where numerous challenges and crowdsourcing concerns arise in an area;
• Enable greater use of performance/speed test data to inform challenges and adopt other reforms to the challenge processes;
• Apply meaningful consequences for chronic overreporting of availability, as compared to the “no harm, no foul—just file better next time” regime that applies today; and
• Do not reduce or eliminate broadband funding for an entire area based upon coverage claims unless objective technical standards confirm that a provider realistically could serve every customer in that area.