When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released their new broadband map in November 2022, many hoped the chronic inaccuracies of past FCC maps would be resolved. Previous maps of high-speed broadband access in the United States painted inaccurate pictures partly because the definitions of things like “access” and “high-speed” were, frankly, wrong. Furthermore, the maps were based on data self-reported by internet service providers, which have every interest in claiming better service than they actually provide. The new maps have all the problems of the old maps, with the new issue that they are the basis for how $42 billion in broadband infrastructure grants will be spent.
The problems have also been raised by states, local government, and community organizations, who have filed challenges to the FCC over these inaccuracies. It is now up to the FCC and NTIA to fix the map, and time is of the essence: the Biden administration is set to confirm how the money will be spent by the summer as part of its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
Overreliance on internet service providers (ISPs) to report service locations and service availability is a recurring problem. ISPs have no incentive to accurately report, and in fact, have every incentive to overreport, because misinforming the government has never carried a heavy penalty. These same ISPs then use these faulty broadband maps – which are built on their bad data – to challenge and try to prevent would-be competitors from building infrastructure into areas that are underserved or unserved.
The FCC, recognizing this concern, created a challenge process through which government entities as
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