Quickly Approaching Broadband Map Challenge Deadline Raises Concerns

Accurate mapping of broadband mapping is essential in ensuring resources are used correctly to close the digital divide. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has raised concerns that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) national broadband map may not be sufficiently corrected before it is used to help the federal government distribute tens of billions of tax dollars in broadband grants to states.

Time is quickly running out for states and other stakeholders to challenge the map, because the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) established a January 13 deadline to dispute the accuracy and be eligible for funding from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program (BEAD). That program will hand out $42.5 billion in grants to boost broadband deployment across the country.

In its report, CRS noted some concerns that have been raised around the country, many of them previously highlighted by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and others in recent op-eds and news articles.

The highlighted concerns include:

• The FCC has received thousands of challenges, according to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, but still expects to create the next iteration of the national broadband map by mid-January. But CRS notes in the report that disputes by existing ISPs on whether some locations are actually served or not could lead to legal action, “which could lengthen the time to needed to resolve some challenges.”
• New Mexico State Broadband Director Kelly Schlegel said her office is too understaffed to correct errors that office found in the FCC map by the NTIA deadline. She expressed concern this issue “could cause New Mexico to miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars” in grant funds.
• Montana Department of Administration Chief Data Officer Adam Carpenter said at an October panel that contractual obligations could prevent the state (and likely other states) from challenging the map. He said Montana leases broadband data from private entities, and revealing that information publicly could violate the contracts with the third-party vendors.
• The report also points out that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers an additional challenge mechanism that allows local governments, nonprofits and ISPs to dispute whether locations are eligible for grants prior to states distributing the BEAD money. 

Because of the importance of the national broadband map in ensuring that BEAD money is sent to truly unserved or underserved areas, “the map’s accuracy, timeliness and fairness…may be of continued concern to the 118^th Congress,” the report states. CRS suggests that Congress could mandate an extension of the challenge process timeline for the allocation of BEAD money, as well as requiring the FCC hold a proceeding to gather public input on challenge resolutions.

For his part, NTIA Director Alan Davidson said in December at the Institute on Telecommunications Policy and Regulation annual conference that the rapidly approaching deadline made him “incredibly uncomfortable,” Broadband Breakfast reported.

The good news is the national broadband map indicates that just 2 percent of locations in the U.S. lack broadband access. If the federal government wants to achieve a goal of 100 percent connectivity, then Congress should extend the challenge deadline for BEAD funding. It’s more important to get this right, than move too quickly and get it wrong.

Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.