Small ISPs Urge Broadband Map Fixes to House Small Business Subcommittee

Rural and small ISP officials urged Congress to step in to complement FCC actions aimed at fixing the agency's broadband coverage data collection practices. The appeal came during a House Small Business Committee Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. They cited legislation and the commission's planned August vote on a proposal from Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1906120076). The broadband mapping issue has repeatedly drawn the ire of lawmakers (see 1905150061). The House Rules Committee, meanwhile, cleared for floor consideration three broadband-related amendments to the FY 2020 budget bill (HR-3351) containing funding for the FCC and FTC (see 1906240061).

“The current state of broadband mapping is disgraceful” and it's “imperative” the FCC's coming mapping order include “rules that require large carriers to submit reports with more granular data,” said House Small Business Infrastructure Chairman Jared Golden, D-Maine. “For example, instead of using census blocks, carriers can submit coverage reports based on much smaller census tracts or submit shapefiles instead of” data collected via the FCC's much-criticized Form 477 process. “Robust and in-depth authentication of broadband coverage data needs to be conducted to assess whether communities are truly connected,” he said.

The 477 collection process “has become dated,” as shown by the “intense scrutiny” it faces on Capitol Hill and among stakeholders who feel their communities “are being overlooked,” said subcommittee ranking member Pete Stauber, R-Minn. “We cannot continue to leave our constituents behind” in access “just because they choose to live in rural communities.”

Policymakers “should apply a specific set of factors to standardize data collection, better understand carriers’ broadband coverage” and “produce more reliable maps,” said Competitive Carriers Association Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan. "No model will perfectly reflect on-the-ground coverage.” He touted the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (Data) Act. S-1822 would require the FCC issue rules to collect more “granular” broadband coverage data (see 1906130029).

The FCC is “asking the wrong questions” via the form, said Allamakee Clayton Electric Cooperative Director-Operations, Engineering & Technology Dan Stelpflug, speaking for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. “More granular data is needed” but the FCC also “needs a system of checks and balances to help ensure providers are reporting actual speeds that are reliably available to consumers.” Federal agencies “must undertake increased data verification efforts, including the implementation of a challenge process,” he said.

There's a "need for a challenge process prior to relying upon [a coverage] map to make decisions about where funding or support should either go or be withdrawn,” said UniTel Director-Customer and Industry Relations Beth Osler, speaking for NTCA. “A more granular map will ... identify more accurately where broadband is available, and getting more detailed information on a basis below the census block level is an important objective.” She promoted S-1822 and the Broadband Data Improvement Act (HR-3162/S-1522), which would direct federal funds to build out broadband infrastructure and require broadband providers to report more accurate data on the locations they serve to help improve the national broadband map (see 1905160087).

Range Cos. Chief Regulatory Officer Jason Hendricks, representing WTA, backed crowdsourcing “opportunities for customers to challenge broadband speeds reported by companies.” He cautioned “that broadband speed and latency tests within a home over customer equipment may not be as accurate as those performed by companies for the portions of the networks they control.” There should be a “streamlined” challenge process “whereby existing providers, state commissions, customers, and interested third parties can challenge the broadband availability for which the decision is being made to grant new support or reduce current support,” he said.

The cleared broadband-related amendments to HR-3351 include one led by Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., that would bar the FCC from using new funding to collect further broadband coverage data via Form 477. Language from Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., would prohibit the FCC from finalizing an order to institute an overall USF budget cap (see 1905310069). An amendment from Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., would bar the FCC from using FY 2020 funds to implement “any report, order, or ruling that prevents, prohibits, or preempts a State or locality from mandating the sharing of a building owner’s wiring for communications services in multiple tenant environments.”

Other approved telecom and privacy-related amendments to HR-3351 include one from House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, that aims to reallocate $1 million of the FCC funding to prioritize the agency's work to combat robocalls aimed at scamming senior citizens. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., proposes reallocating $1 in FCC funding to “highlight the importance of completing its investigation” into wireless carriers' location tracking practices, including the sale of customer location tracking data allegedly accessed by bounty hunters (see 1805240073). Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., wants to reallocate $3 million of the FTC funding to encourage the agency to take enforcement action against companies that “fail to protect children's privacy.”