Data & Mapping

The New York State Public Service Commission released a first-of-its-kind, interactive broadband map to provide the most detailed depiction of broadband infrastructure in New York to date.

Thanks to nearly $1 billion in funding from a variety of sources, West Virginia officials are working to provide high-speed broadband to 300,000 households in the state that are currently lacking service. The funding comes from American Rescue Plan Act allocations, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and other sources that were wrapped into Gov Jim Justice (R-WV)'s $1 billion plan released in October 2021.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar released the initial 2022 Texas Broadband Plan on June 15. The new broadband plan, from Texas' Broadband Development Office (BDO) outlines the state's goals for improving broadband access and affordability. Most notably, Fierce reports, the BDO aims to develop a statewide broadband map by January 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission reminds all facilities-based providers of fixed or mobile broadband internet access service of their duty to timely file complete and accurate data in the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) on a biannual basis. Providers may begin submitting their data on June 30, 2022, and must complete their submissions no later than September 1, 2022.

The OpenVault Insights Report for the first quarter of 2022 shows that broadband usage remains high. Average household broadband usage in March 2022 was measured at 514 gigabytes, staying over half a terabyte of data used for the average household. This is a drop from 536 gigabytes in the fourth quarter of 2021, but the first quarter has always shown seasonally lower usage than at the end of the previous year. Usage for the first quarter is up 11% from the 462 gigabytes in the first quarter of 2021.

The digital divide is a persistent feature in the United States. While most Americans have access to some form of broadband internet connection, the bandwidth, quality of service (QoS), and choice of providers remain highly variable throughout the country. For example, while the residents of many urban areas can choose between gigabit fiber, cable, or digital subscriber line connections from multiple providers, residents in rural areas often suffer from limited platform and provider choices. A fundamental problem with developing effective public policy for broadband in the U.S.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed rules for collecting data on the price and subscription rates of internet service offerings received by households enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program, to comply with a mandate in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeks comment on the data to be collected, format for publishing, and timing of the collection, as well as measures for protecting personally identifiable or proprietary information.

As discussed in Keller & Heckman's initial post in this series, the Federal Communications Commission is about to launch its new Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program.

In preparation for the inaugural Broadband Data Collection (BDC) filing window opening on June 30, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission announced the launch of an online help center and other new resources to assist internet service providers and other filers of verified broadband availability data prepare their submissions when the filing window opens. The tutorials and other help center tools are featured among other resources on the BDC webpage.

There is one interesting aspect of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants that could impact any rural community that is hoping to find a broadband solution from the $42.5 billion BEAD grant process. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is allowing local governments to challenge the broadband maps that will be used to determine the areas that are eligible for the grants. This is something that communities should be getting ready for today.