BUSINESS

The FCC has a new broadband map, and you can challenge the results

The FCC wants you to check its new broadband service map to see whether it's accurate. Billions in grants are at stake.

Rick Barrett
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sal Martinez (left) and Chris Halvorson with Northwest Cable Construction, drill holes for duct work that will house TDS Telecom internet cable in Elkhorn. TDS, based in Madison, says it's spending more than $500 million on expansions in Wisconsin over five years.

A new interactive map showing the availability of high-speed internet across the U.S. will determine billions of dollars in expansion grants. It's riddled with errors, but unlike previous versions, you can now challenge what's shown for your address and maybe get it fixed.

And you'd better do it soon because the Federal Communications Commission has set a Jan. 13 deadline for consumer challenges to the rough draft of the map which cost at least $44 million to produce.

Experts say the FCC's new mapping system is a step in the right direction for delivering high-speed internet, also known as broadband, to millions of Americans who need it for school, work, and everyday life. But getting accurate data has been difficult, even with address-by-address input from the service providers, because they haven't always provided the information required by regulators or it's been inaccurate.

"The long-term success of this effort will depend on consumers and stakeholder engagement," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

Billions in broadband grants are at stake

Internet service providers, lobbyists, and elected officials will be involved in the process because billions in broadband grants are at stake. Some states and municipalities will weigh in heavily, while others won't.

“I think it’s going to be a giant goat rodeo,” said Barry Orton, telecommunications professor emeritus from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Based on its new map, the FCC now claims that more than 98% of Wisconsin has access to internet speeds of 25 megabit per second downloads and 3 Mbps uploads, an improvement over previous years, but inadequate for a household with multiple family members online.

For years the FCC has overestimated broadband coverage, and many rural areas are still unserved or underserved – the latter meaning they lack access to minimum internet speeds of 100 megabit-per-second downloads and 20 Mbps uploads, suitable for a household with multiple family members online.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission says it’s identified 7,000 locations not even on the new FCC map. The State of New York said it found 31,000 missing unserved or underserved locations. Vermont said 22% of the locations it knew of were missing.

Challenges filed by Wisconsin, other states

Wisconsin, New York and Vermont have filed challenges with the FCC and have encouraged consumers and businesses to also check the map for accuracy.

The data will help determine the states' share of $42 billion in federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grants. "This is really important, and we are asking people for their help," said Wisconsin PSC Chairwoman Rebecca Cameron Valcq.

"We know the map has errors, and we also know that we have to get this right," Valcq said.

The map shows many locations as having access to multiple internet service providers, when in reality that’s not the case. It also overestimates available speeds in rural areas and indicates Elon Musk's Starlink satellite service is an option −when in fact Starlink isn't necessarily available.

The FCC says the interactive map will improve with input from consumers.

“The FCC is kind of between a rock and a hard place. They’ve had to rely on self-reporting from the service providers who have tended to be optimistic about what they could deliver and where they could deliver it,” said Andrew Cohill, president and CEO of Design Nine, a broadband network consulting firm that’s done work in central Wisconsin.

“We recommend doing an on-the-ground survey and collecting hard data from customers,” Cohill said.

New map is better than previous "worthless" version

Even with its flaws, most agree the new mapping system is much better than the one it replaced.

“I’d say it’s five to 10 times more accurate. The previous one was absolutely worthless," Orton said.

For years, the FCC handed out billions in broadband expansion grants without knowledge of where service was actually missing. If even one home or business had access in a census block, sometimes covering hundreds of square miles, the entire area was considered served.

Many places were shown as having broadband when, in reality, they didn’t.

More: FCC broadband grants WisconsinElectricity transformed rural America nearly a century ago. Now, millions of people on farms and in small towns desperately need broadband.

"That means in the United States we lack an honest picture of the communities that are consigned to the wrong side of the digital divide," Rosenworcel, then an FCC Commissioner, said in a June 2020 memo of dissent over the agency's rush to award $1 billion in grants based on a flawed map.

That December, Congress gave the FCC millions of dollars to create a better mapping system.

The result was the recently released map, still containing errors generated by the service providers and the data collection system, but largely fixable.

“This is a beginning, not an endpoint...this work is far from over,” Rosenworcel said.

The new map is probably about 80% accurate, said Andrew Petersen, vice president of corporate affairs for TDS Telecom, a Madison-based internet service provider that says it's spending around $500 million on broadband expansion in Wisconsin and hired 26 computer science interns to verify its map data.

“The FCC map needs to become the gold standard," Petersen said.

Austin Mejacki with Northwest Cable Construction, works on a project that will house TDS Telecom internet cable in Elkhorn.  TDS, based in Madison, says it's spending more than $500 million on expansions in Wisconsin over five years.

Challenging the map is easy enough

Looking up your address and checking the information that’s shown for available broadband services and speeds only takes a minute.

After entering an address into a text box, the content you're seeking appears and is sortable in different ways such as the types of available service and speeds.

If you believe the information is wrong, you can click on an “availability challenge” and send the FCC your corrections. You can also file a “location challenge” if that information isn't correct.

Michael Pitsch, of Manitowoc County, said it was easy to challenge the results for his home.

More: FCC consumer broadband challengeThe FCC has resources to help consumers challenge its new broadband map

“It’s not like going to the FCC and filing a complaint, which is a much more convoluted process,” he said.

Service providers have an opportunity to dispute challenges and file their own challenges to competitors' information on the map.

In theory, the system ought to improve over time and result in a better use of taxpayer dollars spent on broadband expansions.

“Policymakers on both sides of the aisle were very emphatic that they didn’t want to see fraud, abuse and funding of duplicative networks,” Petersen said.

“I would say this rests on the shoulders of the FCC, which I think is going to do a reasonable job...By no means is this a perfect process, but I would say we’re in the first inning of a nine-inning game,” he added.

More accountability needed

Now that the map has been published, the FCC says it will be updated on a regular basis. The Jan. 13 deadline for challenges is important for the distribution of $42 billion in BEAD grants.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said it intends to announce BEAD grant allocations by June 30th, "using the most up-to-date version of the FCC maps as a guide.”

More: Wisconsin broadband grantsWisconsin will get at least $100 million for broadband expansion under the massive federal infrastructure bill

Previous grant programs revealed accountability issues across the country.

In Wisconsin, for example, a state Legislative Audit Bureau report showed that broadband service providers received millions of dollars under two federal programs but failed to document what they actually spent on their projects.

More: Wisconsin broadband audit bureauAudit Bureau claims state agency failed to verify broadband grant spending

The audit bureau said it examined grants administered by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Nearly all the 384 supporting documents the PSC reviewed for CARES Act reimbursements failed to indicate what the grant recipients had actually paid for the work, according to the audit bureau. What's more, the PSC did not document its efforts to verify that grant recipients had built the broadband infrastructure for which they were reimbursed.

PSC Commissioner Ellen Nowak was critical of how the agency administered the CARES Act money, saying there was a rush to get it "out the door" that led to poor decisions.

She's concerned something similar could happen with hundreds of millions of dollars in other grants.

And while the FCC map will never be perfect, she said, it ought to be more than just "close enough."