Racing to Release Broadband Maps, FCC Faces Challenges

Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is pressing to get the FCC’s first version of broadband maps ready in four months, which Commissioner Brendan Carr supports. Experts said in recent interviews that it's doable to get something out, but the kinds of maps the FCC needs will likely take much longer. The maps are considered critical to the 5G Fund auction and the next phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Those representing smaller carriers that are likely to contend for the 5G Fund were hopeful but uncertain that maps can be developed in a tight time frame.

Finishing the maps by the July deadline “will likely require the FCC to adopt my proposal of releasing a targeted map,” Carr said in a statement for this report. “One that is tailored to the data we will need for RDOF Phase II and the 5G Fund.”

A 5G Fund NPRM a year ago said the data collection would take an estimated 18 months or more, though that language wasn’t in the final order. Former FCC officials said the process is complicated and requires multiple steps. At the February commissioners' meeting, Jean Kiddoo, chair of the new Broadband Data Task Force, warned “it’s going to take awhile” to get maps. “We’ll try everything to get it quicker,” she said (see 2102170052).

The FCC must set up an information data collection center to upload geographic information system-enabled maps to a central repository in a way that stores the information securely and validates and collates it with information from other providers, a process that took a year during the Form 477 revamp (see 2007160062). Requiring providers to supply that data involves multiple publications in the Federal Register and OMB clearance as a data collection. Next, the FCC has to allow time for ISPs to create and format data files to be submitted to the agency, under the order: Then, staff has to validate the maps and launch a challenge process. Officials noted many of the rules were required in legislation.

“Improving our mapping is a top priority and the sooner we get it done the better,” said an FCC spokesperson. The Broadband Data Task Force is “moving quickly, starting with a complex series of procurements and development plans,” and “investigating what improvements can be made to our maps in short order.”

Details Unclear

Details need to be worked out, or at least made more explicit, some experts said, noting four months isn't much time to make great progress.

In the business sphere, technology solutions, including mapping and identifying unserved locations, have gotten better because there's a market to help ISP buildout, said ConnectMaine Executive Director Peggy Schaffer. State officials said the FCC could speed up work by involving smart-map experts.

It’s not completely clear how the FCC will gather the data in a compressed time frame, said South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Chairman Chris Nelson. “The need for accurate mapping is further heightened by all of the new broadband buildout subsidies which are being considered by Congress and individual states, so that programs don’t overlap or leave out needy locations.”

“If the process can be done in four months and rely on accurate data, that is a huge win,” said Rural Wireless Association General Counsel Carri Bennet. If the FCC “shortcuts this and relies on false data, like the marketing maps used by large wireless carriers instead of real-world coverage data, then we are going to be in a pickle,” she said. The FCC has known since Dec. 27 that it would have money for maps, but agency leadership changed less than a month later when the Biden administration began, Bennet said: The commission "may have an outside chance of delivering on a four-month deadline, but it will need to stay laser focused on that and not take on items that are not driven by statutory deadlines.”

“We need to ensure that new maps are more reliable and accurate than their predecessors, but if better maps can be created rapidly, then we can accelerate our efforts to close the digital divide,” said Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry. “I am confident the FCC and the Broadband Data Task Force will get it right.”

“The FCC can do important things in four months, but some steps take time, such as giving consumers and providers an opportunity to disagree with initial mapping data,” said Jon Peha, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of electrical engineering and public policy. Other academics acknowledged the FCC has a tough job.

Speed vs. Accuracy

“Speed and accuracy and cost are always at odds,” Schaffer said. The FCC has been working with mapping experts, she said. “They can do it, if they keep their eye on quality and what the end goal is, which is not just a map, but an accurate, useful map that can help guide program and policy decisions.” Setting aggressive goals is good, she said: “That goal can be moved backward or forward as they hit walls or have success.”

Some states have granular data that would help speed up collection, and there should be "uniform collection across the nation so that there's a consistent methodology," said former Commissioner Rachelle Chong. “You've got to really look at the whole picture of what the speed is going to be, what the latency is, is the upload adequate, particularly for videoconferencing, which is an established need that the FCC has said is critically important.” The FCC’s consumer portal for individuals to self-report broadband access, which launched last week, is a “fantastic idea,” Chong said, citing California's open-consumer sourced data. "It does work."

Former Commissioners Robert McDowell and Mike O’Rielly said the FCC should move forward: Four months is probably a reasonable target. “It’s critical for many reasons to get this done, and pressure is appropriately intense," O'Rielly said.

“Millions of people have been waiting for over two decades to get online,” said former Commissioner Michael Copps, now at Common Cause. “Getting maps for every nook and cranny across the country may not be feasible in four months, but we can surely get more than enough to ‘get cracking’ on buildout by then.”

Mapping problems were “so bad in the past that unserved communities seeking funding for broadband deployment could be deemed ineligible to receive it simply because the existing maps indicate they have one or more providers,” said Deborah Collier, Citizens Against Government Waste vice president-policy and government affairs. It may help that Rosenworcel opened “a line of communication” to consumers, who can “let the agency know if their area has broadband access,” Collier said.

Broadband mapping is “critical,” and it’s “extremely unfortunate that good mapping data does not yet exist,” said Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton. “FBA doesn’t have visibility on the timing on when the ‘improved’ broadband mapping will be available, but we believe that the acting FCC chairwoman does have that visibility,” he said: “We hope that good broadband mapping data is just months away, as she indicates.”