Data & Mapping

A new law requires the Federal Communications Commission to provide better, more accurate maps of broadband internet availability across the United States. The goal of the new law is to ensure federal funding for rural broadband internet service in areas that today lack this 21st century necessity — a need that has become all the more urgent amid the stay-at-home orders resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau -- in coordination with the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and the Office of Economics and Analytics -- seeks comment on a petition filed by Charter Communications requesting waiver of the FCC’s census block eligibility criteria for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction in order to exclude from eligibility census blocks in New York in which Charter will deploy broadband service to satisfy its commitments to the state.

WC Docket Nos. 10-90, 19-126

The COVID-19 crisis is exposing how the cracks in the US’s creaking digital infrastructure are potentially putting lives at risk, exclusive research shows. With most of the country on lockdown and millions relying on the internet for work, healthcare, education and shopping, research by M-Lab, an open source project which monitors global internet performance, showed that internet service slowed across the country after the lockdown. “This is going to kill people,” said Sascha Meinrath, a professor at Penn State University and co-founder of M-Lab.

As unemployment claims reach record highs, Americans' unequal access to high-speed internet could become a roadblock to recovery. Even before the age of coronavirus, there's evidence that the availability of high-speed internet directly affects employment. At least six studies spanning two decades show a cause-and-effect relationship: Where broadband is deployed, businesses adopt more efficient practices, introduce new services, and can reach new labor pools and customers.

Unfortunately, the FCC is publishing eligibility maps that bear little relationship to where there is or is not actually coverage. The analysis itself notes that the maps released April 9 may bear little resemblance to the areas actually available for funding in an auction, which is extremely concerning. At a time when everyone is recognizing the importance of bridging the digital divide, the FCC seems intent on moving forward with spending $9 billion without bothering to measure the scope of the problem they are purporting to solve.

Broadband is more important than ever, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been working to expand access and increase connectivity for all Americans. We recently provided a one-year update to the American Broadband Initiative (ABI), the Trump Administration’s government-wide approach to connectivity challenges. Five new states – Nebraska, New Mexico, Michigan, Missouri, and Virginia – have joined the initial eight states participating in our National Broadband Availability Map.

Broadband consumption is showing indications of reaching a plateau in markets that have been “quarantined” against the coronavirus pandemic, according to the most recent data analyzed by OpenVault. Following three weeks of double-digit percentage growth, the total downstream data usage in those markets with shelter-at-home policies declined 5.80% during the week of March 30–April 3 when compared to the previous week. While total upstream usage continued to grow during the March 30–April 3 timeframe, the increase over the previous week was only 2.3%.

The coronavirus is putting a klieg light on an already hot topic in Washington, the digital divide, and is fueling new government subsidies for high-speed broadband in rural areas and new calls for more from Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and industry by those pushing to close the divide. “Our longstanding digital divide has morphed into a monstrous new COVID-19 divide,” said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. FCC Chairman Ajit  Pai has been waiving regulations and calling on Internet service providers to keep America connected, a call they have been answering.

On March 9, 24 senators wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to express concerns about key details of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), particularly excluding areas that are awarded funding through the US Department of Agriculture's ReConnect program and state-run broadband deployment or subsidy programs from being eligible for the RDOF.

On March 23, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act. The new law requires the Federal Communications Commission, before the end of the summer, to dramatically reform the nation's problematic broadband deployment maps.