Waiting for Updated FCC Broadband Maps

Tens of billions in government subsidies await updated FCC broadband service availability maps that indicate with accuracy and precision those locations that currently lack access to a high-speed Internet connection.

The question is, when will those maps be completed?

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo testified that the FCC will release those maps this summer – "probably."

Not so fast, an FCC spokesperson later clarified, describing the project as "complicated" and noting that "there is a protest pending before the Government Accountability Office" that has delayed progress, at least temporarily.

The Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act, passed by Congress in March 2020, directs the FCC to produce revised broadband maps – and to rely upon those maps "when making any new award of funding with respect to the deployment of broadband internet access service intended for use by residential and mobile customers."

Consequently, two substantial FCC subsidy programs are on hold until those maps are finalized: (1) Phase II of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which will disburse as much as $11.2 billion on top of the $9.2 billion already awarded in Phase I, and (2) the $9 billion 5G for Rural America Fund.

In addition, and as Free State Foundation President Randolph J. May and I emphasized in comments we submitted last Friday to NTIA regarding implementation of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires NTIA and the states to rely exclusively on those maps in determining which areas are "unserved" – and, secondarily, "underserved" – and therefore eligible for grants.

Accordingly, the FCC is under intense pressure to complete the Digital Opportunity Data Collection (DODC) – now referred to as the "Broadband Data Collection" – that Mr. May and I summarized in a November 2020 Perspectives from FSF Scholars.

In a March 2021 blog post, then-Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel provided an overview of actions the agency had taken to do just that, one of which was "to issue a Request for Information to jump start the contracting process for the creation of the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, a common dataset of all locations in the United States where fixed broadband internet access service can be installed."

On November 9, 2021, the FCC awarded that $44.9 million contract to CostQuest Associates. However, a losing bidder, LightBox Parent, LP, filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on November 19, 2021. By law, the GAO has up to 100 days – that is, until February 28, 2022 – to issue a decision. Until it does, progress on the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric has been paused.

In a December 8, 2021, letter to Representative Victoria Spartz (R – IN), Commissioner Rosenworcel described this temporary impasse, stated that "[t]he FCC is committed to implementing its new Broadband Data Collection process as fast as possible," and described the ways in which it "has made significant progress."

However, Chairwoman Rosenworcel did not provide a date certain for when the maps would be completed.

Study: Bad Data Diverting Broadband Subsidies Targeting the Unserved to Already Connected Areas

A Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) study raises serious concerns that, contrary to the FCC's intentions, ratepayer dollars will be used to subsidize the overbuilding of existing broadband networks.

The goal of the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is to incentivize the construction of broadband network infrastructure specifically and exclusively in those areas that are, and are likely to remain, unserved.

That, of course, requires a factual appreciation of where "broadband," currently defined by the FCC as delivering download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps, is – and, more to the point, is not – available.

By all accounts, however, the broadband availability data that currently exists is fraught with problems.

For more information on the Digital Opportunity Data Collection, an in-progress mapping-modernization effort initiated by then-Chairman Ajit Pai in 2017 and funded by Congress at the end of last year, please see "A Primer: The COVID Relief Bill's Broadband Funding Provisions," a December 26, 2020, post to the FSF Blog, and "Congress Should Fund Needed Broadband Maps This Session," a November 2020 Perspectives co-authored by Free State Foundation President Randolph May.

Nevertheless, based upon the belief that existing data does indicate with sufficient accuracy those census blocks completely lacking broadband, the FCC conducted the RDOF Phase I reverse auction at the end of last year. 180 bidders won a total of $9.2 billion in subsidies to connect 5.2 million locations understood to be unserved.

But according to "Missed Opportunity: How the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Wastefully Subsidizes the Connected," a study the CCA filed with the FCC on May 6, as much as $1 billion of that money – more than 10 percent – instead will go "to wealthy, densely populated areas that already have access to broadband."

High-profile examples include Cupertino, California, the home of Apple Inc.; Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco; and parts of the downtown Chicago business district.

All told, CCA warns that RDOF Phase I subsidies could be used to overbuild existing, privately funded broadband networks serving nearly 300,000 locations and over 400,000 people.

The CCA therefore urges the FCC to "reaffirm its commitment to closing the digital divide by using its ample authority to prevent scarce, high-cost funds from needlessly subsidizing broadband deployment in areas that already have it."

Four States Added to NTIA's National Broadband Availability Map in July, Bringing Total to 22

NTIA announced on July 23 that two more states, Indiana and Georgia, are participating in the National Broadband Availability Map (NBAM). Along with Wyoming and Washington State, two additions disclosed earlier that month, a total of 22 states are now involved.

Not to be confused with the original National Broadband Map that was decommissioned several years ago, or the FCC's current, but frequently criticized, Fixed Broadband Deployment Map, the NBAM was authorized by Congress in 2018. It utilizes geographic information system (GIS) technology, as well as multiple public (including FCC Form 477) and non-public data sets, to visualize for state and federal policymakers ("partners") those specific areas that currently are unserved. Because the NBAM incorporates proprietary information, it is not available to the general public.

In a July 29 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "Legislative 'Best Practices' to Expand and Accelerate Broadband Coverage," I discussed, among other topics, the importance of accurate coverage maps for federal subsidy programs targeting unserved areas; efforts by the FCC (the Digital Opportunity Data Collection (DODC)) and Congress (the Broadband DATA Act) to produce modernized, publicly available maps; and the pressing need for funding to make those maps a reality.