Data & Mapping

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether broadband-service providers exaggerated their level of coverage to authorities preparing to distribute billions of dollars in subsidies. At issue are claims by carriers that they already provide high-speed internet service to rural and other underserved areas where it’s not actually available. The Biden administration is awarding $42.5 billion to increase access in these locations. Areas served and unserved are being marked on a map compiled by the FCC.

As Los Angeles County officials work with community coalitions to improve high-speed Internet access in underserved communities across the region, the Digital Equity LA Summit focused on the challenges ahead: urging state officials to fix the broadband priority maps the state will use to target where to invest $2 billion in state broadband grant funds with the state months away from receiving over a billion additional dollars from the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Representing the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) were Michael Mullaney, Preside

The Federal Communications Commission recently released a “pre-production” draft of its new National Broadband Map in an effort to provide more precise details about where internet service does and does not exist in individual locations across the US. While much attention has been paid to how the map represents broadband service for individual households, there is much less understanding among the general public with regards to how the map represents individual community anchor institutions, such as public schools, libraries, and hospitals.

On February 3, 2023, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to members of Congress regarding the broadband data collection process. In December 2022, the lawmakers wrote to Rosenworcel with complaints from "constituents, state and local governments, and service providers alike of continuing concerns about the accuracy of the FCC's preliminary national broadband map. The lawmakers included recommendations for accountability measures moving forward.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of broadband internet connectivity became glaringly obvious for many people. As offices, schools, and businesses closed and stayed shuttered for weeks and in some cases months, many people worked or learned remotely – and continue to do so. Now is a critical time to address the issue of community broadband deployment in New York – and at the same time, enable the transition to clean energy.

Cell network coverage maps have always been dubiously accurate in the US, and even the ones released by the Federal Communication Commission in 2021 come with a ton of asterisks. A company called Ranlytics is hoping to make a much more accurate picture by attaching equipment to some of the mail trucks that are already driving to many locations in the US to deliver parcels and letters.

Low-income multifamily communities or those with a high percentage of unserved residents are now eligible to receive broadband deployment funding from Congress, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) reaffirmed this eligibility.  Each state is now building out its programs and establishing criteria that build upon federal priorities and requirements. This is a critical next step in ensuring the total and efficient disbursement of these funds.

If you zoom into Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband map, it doesn’t take long to realize something doesn’t look right.

Significant increases in consumption and speeds, spurred in part by government incentives, powered broadband toward or past major milestones at the end of 2022.

The wireless industry is out with a new paper that claims, “The bias [towards fiber to the home] ‘could increase costs by upwards of $30 to $60 billion depending on the distribution of fiber deployment costs for the unserved locations.’” It also says “[excluding unlicensed fixed wireless] ‘unambiguously adds’ at least 1.9 million new locations calling for government-funded overbuilding with [Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment] BEAD funds”. As both my