FCC Has Obtained Detailed Broadband Maps From ISPs for the First Time Ever

The Federal Communications Commission has collected precise broadband availability information from Internet service providers for the first time and aims to release a first draft of a new broadband map in November, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote Friday. From a report: The FCC last week "completed the first filing window for submitting data on where broadband service is and is not available," a milestone in the years-long process of creating an accurate US broadband map, she wrote. "For the first time ever, we have collected extensive location-by-location data on precisely where broadband services are available, and now we are ready to get to work and start developing new and improved broadband maps."

The resulting map should show whether fixed broadband service is available at each residence or business location. The FCC's inaccurate broadband maps have long made it difficult to distribute deployment grants where they're needed most. Current maps are based on the Form 477 data-collection program in which ISPs report whether they offer service in each census block, which essentially lets ISPs count an entire census block as served even if it can serve just one home in the area. The new, more accurate maps will be used to help distribute $42.45 billion from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program created by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Re: Shit I could have done this in 10 minutes

[saloomy]

That is subscribers, not actual coverage. For example, Spacex could just submit a geographic map of the US, save for some spots in Alaska.

Re:

[Joviex]

All your anonymous coward experience tell you that, moron?

Re:

[StormReaver]

Geolocation services are not nearly accurate enough for this, and your approach would only recognize locations that already have some form of active Internet at the ping moment. It would also not account for Internet speeds. There may be other issues I can't think of, but trying to automate something like this is doomed to fail. A manual survey is needed.

Re:

[TeeDub]

This isn't geo-location. This is either shapefiles of coverage areas (certified by an "engineer" or at least it will be in the future) OR based on locations that the FCC paid CostQuest lots of money to dream up (filed on those locations by latitude/longitude). The CostQuest locations are probably 90% accurate, with most of the misses being in rural areas. Conveniently, most of the funding will be targeted at those rural areas.

Re:Shit I could have done this in 10 minutes

[Anubis IV]

1a) Does this address have access to a connection?
1b) Does this address have access to a broadband connection?
2a) Does this address have a connection?
2b) Does this address have a broadband connection?
3a) Who provides connections at this address?
3b) Who provides broadband connections at this address?
3c) How many companies provide connections at this address?
3d) How many companies provide broadband connections at this address?
4) What tiers of service are available at this address?
5) What types of connections (e.g. landline, cellular, satellite) are available at this address?

Your data set would be able to do a lousy job at answering question 2a above, and that's about it. Your data has gaps where service is unavailable, which are precisely the gaps we want to fill. Your data is biased towards affluent households (i.e. those who can afford connections). Your data fails to reliably distinguish between one household and a thousand households (e.g. you don't account for NAT and its ongoing use in apartment complexes). Your data has significant geographic error due to outdated or missing geolocation data (e.g. it's been two months since my ISP redistributed IP addresses and retailers are still suggesting that I should drive 150+ miles to reach the "nearby" store, rather than going to the one that is just down the street).

I know it's fun to suggest that complex problems are so trite you can solve them with a quick shell script or a few minutes in Excel, but sometimes they actually aren't so simple, especially if you want to do the job well...such as when trying to gather data so you can make fact-based policy decisions that affect hundreds of millions of people, many of whom have been crying for years that they've been underserved as a result of the poor data gathered by previous administrations.

Re: They didn't have this info already?

[NagrothAgain]

Hell, I once worked for an ISP that didnâ(TM)t know where they could actually cover. Got calls from install techs saying "there isn't even a drop at this address, and we have to splice in a new splitter to run one." A lot of smaller ISPs have really terrible plant documentation, I doubt the big ones are that much better.

Form 477

[Iamthecheese]

Form 477 [startyourownisp.com] is used by the FCC to determine which providers are servicing which areas. The information reported using the form is categorized by US census tract and block, and it is the governmentâ(TM)s main source of data used for identifying underserved areas of opportunity (as required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996). facilities-based broadband providers are required to file data with the FCC twice a year (Form 477) on where they offer Internet access service at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in at least one direction. Chapter and verse of the law are [fcc.gov]https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/1.7003 [slashdot.org]

Re:

[Iamthecheese]

Sorry about the borked links. Hey Slashdot, can we have some more screen space between "preview" and "submit"?

Re:

[See Attached]

Will the monopolies that ISP's crave/foster/assure-each-other become apparent? There are enough handshake deals that wont be obvious from 'lookin around' at offers ... until you see the patchworks of solid colors where the monopolies are.

Re:

[TeeDub]

The ISPs could have filed using the 3rd party locations on a spreadsheet. They didn't have to give their propagation data. I'd imagine as this leads to funding, they will have "checks" similar to the Performance Monitoring they are instituting for everyone else receiving a handout. https://www.usac.org/high-cost... [usac.org]

Fiber to 5G

[Sgt_Jake]

It'll be interesting to see how the big ISP's use this as an opportunity to grab billions more for rolling out fiber whilst simultaneously grabbing billions more for substituting fiber plans for a plan to roll out 5G towers, while they submit billions in tax write-offs for how hard they've tried - but haven't been able to - rollout either of those. Minus the expense of hiring lobbyists to make sure no one can get either fiber or 5G without a 5 year service plan that includes ESPN. OH! And commercials. Lots

From the big guys maybe

[Revek]

I ran the backend for a small ISP and we submitted our maps accurately. ATT didn't. They had a coverage area in our local area three times the size of ours. The truth was though that all they offered outside of the core part of the cities we serviced was mobile internet and dial up. Yes dial up. We had some customers who hated us due to the fact that ATT had no service at the edges of the town and we did. Their maps were a joke. Even they knew it.

I'll be looking

[ElizabethGreene]

I'll be looking to see if Comcast says they service my current address. The last time I asked them for service availability they said they had service here and then wanted $8500 to install it. (Residential service)

That doesn't really meet my definition of "available".