CCG Consulting

It is unfortunate timing that the new Federal Communications Commission broadband map was issued in the middle of the process of trying to determine the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant funding. Congress said that the amount of funding that will go to each state must be based upon the FCC map – and the first draft is clearly flawed. However, assuming that that grant funding question gets resolved somehow, there remains the bigger issue of whether the new FCC map will ever accurately portray broadband availability.

There has been a lot of recent press about the new ability for households to challenge broadband coverage claimed at their homes by internet service providers (ISP). The Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map also allows folks to challenge the coverage claimed by cellular carriers. There are two ways to challenge the claimed cellular coverage – by individuals or by local governments. The challenge process for individuals is as follows:

For the first time in my memory, the Senate does not have the votes to approve the nominated FCC Commissioner, Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society]. This has meant that the FCC has been on hold and we’ve had a two-year deadlock between the two Democratic and Republican Commissioners on any controversial issues. There are a number of FCC initiatives that are on hold until there is a fifth Commissioner:

While there has been a lot of activity on the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program, there is still a long way to go before this grant money is used to build new broadband infrastructure. Most of the delay is due to the incredible complexity of the BEAD grant rules. The priority for state grant programs is usually to quickly get the money out the door and spent on infrastructure. Why are the BEAD grants so complicated?

The Biden Administration launched an initiative, the Department of Agriculture's Rural Partners Network,  that has some interesting benefits for rural communities. The goal is to help rural areas maximize the benefits available from the federal government. The new program is putting federal employees directly in rural communities and making them available to help rural communities navigate the confusing federal bureaucracy. As an example, one of the primary roles of the Rural Partners Network is to help local communities find and apply for grants.

There are suddenly a lot of open-access networks springing up around the country. Traditionally, open-access networks have been built by local governments such as the public utility districts (PUDs) in Washington. Today, there are also open-access networks being built by commercial network owners. I’ve been asked by several internet service providers (ISPs) if they should consider operating on an open-access network. Here are a few of the most important factors to consider about operating on an open-access network:

One of the most common complaints I hear from rural folks is the lack of good cellular coverage. Poor cellular coverage doesn’t seem to have gotten the same press as poor broadband, but not having access to cell phones might be more of a daily challenge than the lack of broadband. The Federal Communications Commission maps only ask a cellular carrier to show if it meets the FCC definition of cellular broadband, which is embarrassingly low: 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload is considered covered for 4G.

I suspect that there are already a lot of communities and other folks who are in violation of the license agreement to view and use the new Federal Communications Commission mapping fabric and associated data. CostQuest, the firm that created the mapping fabric, has provided communities and others with a basic license to view and utilize the mapping data strictly for the purpose of the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) process – for reviewing and challenging the FCC maps. Anybody that wants to use the mapping data for any other purpose must sign a different agreement and pay to utilize the da

There is a mountain of complaints to be made about the Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map. In some parts of the country, there are a lot of missing rural locations, including entire subdivisions. Close analysis of the map shows what folks in the broadband world have always known, but were unable to prove, that the big cable companies and telcos don’t cover everybody. It is these unserved folks in the middle of cities that I call the hidden unserved locations. These little pockets came about for a variety of reasons.

Hopefully, the word is getting out that individuals can challenge the Federal Communications Commission's new National Broadband Map. Broadband providers often claim coverage and broadband speeds that are not actually available. The challenge process is built directly into the FCC broadband map. Anybody can zero in on the map and see the broadband options that providers say are available at their location. If you challenge any of these items for a given provider, the FCC will forward your challenge to said provider.