Counting Farm Passings

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration recently issued a directive encouraging states to get internet service providers (ISPs) to remove locations from Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grant applications that can’t be served by broadband. These extra locations might be barns, sheds, or other locations that are not eligible for a BEAD grant. It’s been clear to anybody who has looked closely at the Federal Communications Commission mapping fabric in rural areas that there are a lot of errors. The NTIA is asking ISPs to eliminate locations where the maps are clearly incorrect but not letting ISPs add back locations that should be in the fabric. This feels like a way to reduce the amount of grants being awarded instead of trying to get it right.