From the moment the FCC announced in 2022 that its new and improved Broadband Data Collection was ready for Internet Service Providers to submit information about where and how they could deliver broadband service to American households, policy analysts and researchers around the country knew we would be in for a rough ride. 

The federal government is capable of collecting good, useful data — just not, it seems, when it comes to Internet service. 

For the 22 years prior, the FCC's Form 477 existed only as a vague gesture towards what could be done if only we cared.

But, it was mostly a reminder instead of the regulatory capture that prevented location-level service, pricing, and a host of other — actually useful — data to inform better policy.

Four years later, it's become clear that the new federal broadband data collection is slightly better in some ways, still refuses to collect basic metrics that would create a more competitive marketplace for citizens, and as a whole is a complex animal hamstrung by complexity, arbitrary decisions, and operability problems that make this work difficult in manifold of new ways.

Welcome to another installment of In Our View, where from time to time, we use this space to share our thoughts on recent events playing out across the digital landscape and take the opportunity to draw attention to important but neglected broadband-related issues.

As its ongoing work to revamp the agency’s notoriously inaccurate broadband coverage maps continues, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week the opening of a window for states, local and Tribal governments, service providers, and other entities to challenge the service data submitted by providers over the summer.

At the end of June, as FCC chairwoman Jessica Ronsenworcel noted, the FCC “opened the first ever window to collect information from broadband providers in every state and territory about precisely where they provide broadband services.” 

The key word here is “precisely” because the truth is: no one really knows precisely where broadband is, or is not, available. And with tens of billions of dollars in federal funding being spent to deploy high-speed Internet infrastructure, accurate mapping data is essential for targeting where those funds would be best allocated in each state and U.S. territory.

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Historically, the FCC relied on self-reported submissions of Internet service providers (ISPs) for information on which locations they serve and what speeds are available at those addresses. However, in practice, that meant the FCC maps could declare an entire census block to be “served” by a broadband provider if that provider claimed the ability to serve just one home in the entire block; thereby overcounting how many households have access to broadband.