[1st-mile-nm] Challenging the FCC Broadband Maps

[Richard Lowenberg]

Challenging the FCC Broadband Maps

by CCGConsulting
https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2020/02/20/challenging-the-fcc-broadband-maps/

I’ve written many times about the absurdity of using the FCC mapping 
data for identifying areas with or without broadband. I’ve lately been 
looking at the FCC mapping data in West Virginia and New Mexico – two of 
the states with the worst broadband coverage in the country - and the 
FCC maps are atrocious. I see counties where the claimed broadband 
coverage in the FCC maps is wrong for more than half of the geographic 
area.

Unfortunately, the FCC is about to award $20.4 billion in RDOF grants 
later this year based solely on these dreadful maps. Luckily, there are 
other grant programs that allow grant applicants to challenge the FCC 
data. This includes the USDA ReConnect grants and many of the state 
grant programs.

One of the few ways to challenge the FCC maps is with speed tests. 
Anybody undertaking such a challenge needs to be aware that the 
incumbent telcos might challenge your speed test results, and 
unfortunately, some of their criticisms will be right. This means that 
anybody challenging the FCC maps has to take some steps to maximize the 
effectiveness of speed tests. Here are a few aspects of administering 
speed tests that should be considered.

(snip)


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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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