[co-author: Nicole McFarland]

Key Points:

• The FCC has announced that it will release a pre-production draft of new nationwide broadband maps on November 18.
• State and tribal governments and other stakeholders will have until early January to challenge the new maps. Significant challenges are expected, and substantial revisions to the draft maps are likely.
• The new maps will pave the way for the allocation of $42 billion in funding for broadband infrastructure and deployment via the BEAD Program.
• The NTIA has announced that it will allocate BEAD state grant amounts no later than June 30, 2023.

Broadband Mapping and Challenge Process

Congress passed the Broadband DATA Act in 2020, directing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to collect more granular data regarding broadband service availability in order to create a publicly accessible, nationwide map of fixed and mobile broadband availability. The new maps have been developed from data submitted by broadband providers earlier this year through the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection effort, and reflect broadband availability as of June 2022. Unlike the old maps, which reported availability on a census-block level, the new maps report availability at specific locations so as to better capture currently unserved and underserved areas. Unserved areas are those which either have no access to broadband at all or no reliable access to broadband with download speeds of at least 25 Mbps, upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps, and latency less than or equal to 100 milliseconds. Underserved areas are those that lack reliable access to broadband with download speeds of at least 100 Mbps, upload speeds of at least 20 Mbps, and latency less than or equal to 100 milliseconds.

Once the draft maps have been released, the agency will accept challenges from states, tribes and other entities through January 13, 2023. The Broadband Data Task Force will host a technical assistance workshop for those filing bulk challenges on November 30. Given the criticism of the data collection process, the challenge process is likely to be lengthy and could lead to significant revisions of the maps.

BEAD Funding Allocation

Following the FCC’s announcement of a date for the map release, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it expects to release funding allocations for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program by June 30, 2023. BEAD grants will be awarded to states, tribes and territories, which will then issue subgrants to complete the broadband buildout. States must prioritize deploying broadband first to unserved locations, then to underserved locations, followed by “community anchor institutions” such as schools and hospitals that lack adequate service. Other potential uses for funds include data collection, further broadband mapping, installing internet infrastructure in multifamily buildings and training and workforce development. Broadband availability demonstrated by the FCC’s maps will determine the allocation of the bulk of funding across the states, tribes and territories.

NTIA encouraged stakeholders to submit challenges to the new maps over the coming weeks to ensure that they will be as accurate as possible in time for the allocation process. Once the funding allocations are released, states will have 180 days to submit their initial proposals and, if approved by the NTIA, will receive the first 20 percent of their funds. What follows will be a challenge process in which local governments and other entities can dispute states’ characterizations of different areas as unserved or underserved. When the challenge process has concluded, states will submit their final proposals to NTIA and, upon approval, will receive the remainder of their funds.