The Free State Foundation's Fourteenth Annual Policy Conference – #FSFConf14 – was on May 6 in Washington D.C. The timely release of broadband maps for identifying unserved areas needing targeted subsidies and for avoiding overbuilding and waste was an important topic of discussion in both #FSFConf14 panels.
During the "View from the FCC" panel, former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn emphasized the importance of federal agencies sharing information regarding technologies, maps, and coverage. And regarding broadband availability and unserved areas, she added that "[a] lot of things we’re unsure of, the maps will make more clear."
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr included broadband maps among the important priorities for federal broadband policy: "We have to prioritize unserved areas, get the maps done, and continue to grow our work force – for the shortage on the tower climbers' side and the fiber splice side. We need infrastructure reform as well."
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington addressed broadband maps in the context of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program as well as the challenges that the federal agencies and state governments have before them in program implementation:
The thread uniting what we've heard from my colleagues up here is the importance of, on the one hand, communication among agencies for effective coordination and, on the other hand, oversight. The two go hand and hand, and the join at the point of mapping. I think what's important is that the FCC is not just delivering maps but also a mapping framework that can continue to be updated and continue to serve as a resource across all levels of government.
Now BEAD does something quite interesting. BEAD allows a program to be tailored to the specific needs of the state. And every time I look at the specific needs of a state, I find something unique. It's expensive to drill in Florida because coral wears down bits wear down faster. On the other hand, Florida is flat. Some states have a very lumpy geography. Some rural states have highly concentrated populations in a small number of villages. Other rural states have widespread populations across farms. Every state is a unique challenge so BEAD is attempting to address that. And, of course, we need to have an extremely comprehensive mapping framework in order to address that. But what that means is the mapping framework coming out of the FCC has got to be valuable to the NTIA, it's got to be valuable the state governments that are in the process of delivering and implementing these plans together with the NTIA, and then there's got to be a constant feedback process.
We've put an unprecedented amount of money out there. Frankly, if technology had not moved on, everyone would have been fine with 25 Mbps/3 Mbps speeds. Now we expect high quality streaming video and we expect it two ways in order for people to work from home to be education at home, to engage in telemedicine, so the target has moved. And that forces us to figure out how to fit past programs into the current outlay. There's a been a commitment across the federal government, then we stepped on the gas rather hard to put more money into it…
As a result, we're still evolving in our sophistication of response at the state level. Some ISPs are telling us the states are engaging in a very sophisticated way. And others are telling us, "We're reporting cases of overbuilding or duplicative building or of. funding through multiple programs for a single build and the states are having a hard time responding to it" because their broadband offices aren't sufficiently developed in some cases. It's my hope that states continue to develop their capacities in this area. That the NTIA, I can't say I envy them, the huge job of implementing a program of this scale. Obviously, they have to do a lot of hiring to do it. It's going to require transformation work at the agency. I've got no doubt that they’re up to the job, but it’s a big job, right? And then it’s going to require continued proactive engagement from the FCC with all those other stakeholders to make sure that the end result is acceptable to the American public and that it was a good use of public money.
During the "Hottest Topics in Communications and Internet Policy" panel, pointed concerns were raised about the lack of harmonization in the maps and their usage by federal agencies and state governments. USTelecom President & CEO Jonathan Spalter stated:
Let's be really clear here. We have yet to have consistent national harmonized maps that are going to be needed to ensure that we will have the most efficient and highest and best uses of the dollars that are going to be moving through the states. There's a promissory note that we've gotten from the Chairwoman that these will come in the fall. I hope that's right.
NCTA President & CEO Michael Powell also offered insightful and balanced assessment about the need for effective use of maps as well as program implementation difficulties that lay ahead:
The statute itself requires the maps as a predicate to distributing funds, so they’re legally required in order to open the spigot. But they've been identified long before this legislation as essential to attacking this problem because you have to know where the problem is, and have some kind of authentic, authoritative consensus about where the problem is in order to invest efficiently.
But the problem is, first of all, there are multiple maps. This worries me, because the maps, in a perfect world, would be integrated. I think the Chairwoman is talking about a set of maps of unserved areas, but not the set of maps that include funding that is already been distributed under RDOF [the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund] and other programs which isn't due out until 2023. Basically, you have one sovereign distributing monies from different pocketbooks to potentially the same areas. If they're not coordinating those in the mapping exercise, you get a set of maps that are only about the initial effort, but next year you get a set of maps about existing programs, and you have areas full commitments by providers who received funds to serve those areas, and all of the sudden you got a state who views the same area as unserved who views the areas as unserved using FCC maps.
Are the FCC maps preemptive? Are they the law of the land? Or if California decides they don’t like what the maps say, are they going to use some Californian map? That's not completely clear. We have a view about that. But that’s going to be a big problem too.
The last thing I'll say is, a map is data and people will fight about it forever. We keep acting like the maps will be effective, and I hope they are as effective as we hope they will be. But I guarantee you, people will weigh whether they are planning to invest money in the places they want or not and then there will be a lot of arguing and appealing and challenging about the specifics of the maps. It's necessary, it's essential, but it also will be messier than some of the hoped-for thinking. But we’ll work through it.
For further discussion on other communications and internet policy topics at #FSFConf14, videos for the FCC Commissioners panel and the Hottest Topics panel are available online.
Also, FSF President Randolph May and Senior Fellow Andrew Long wrote about the broadband maps as necessary to accurately target broadband subsidy support in their November 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "Congress Should Fund Needed Broadband Maps This Session." Mr. Long offered additional insights in his March 2022 Perspectives, "Overlapping Broadband Appropriations Demand Agency Coordination."
(*Note: The #FSFConf14 quotes contained in this blog are based on an unofficial, edited transcription made by the author of this blog. The edits were made for purposes of readability but none of the meaning was changed in doing so.)
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