FCC Updates Broadband Map With New ISP Data, Including Spots With No Service

pcmag.com:

The Federal Communications Commission's cartography of connectivity just got a major upgrade that takes it out of a beta-test phase.

The agency's updated broadband map(Opens in a new window) reflects newer data from internet providers, improved validation by FCC staff, and challenges filed over inaccuracies in the map first published in November. That itself replaced an old, inaccurate, and uninformative FCC map based only on census-block(Opens in a new window)-level filings by ISPs that did not cover individual addresses.

“We called it a pre-production draft, because it had not been subjected to challenges from consumers, states, localities, Tribes, and other stakeholders,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said(Opens in a new window) Tuesday of the November release. “The map we are releasing today reflects these challenges, as well as other improvements to the data we have been making since we launched our first public effort last year.”

So far, the FCC has reviewed challenges to broadband-availability data for more than 4 million addresses and resolved over 75% of them, Rosenworcel said.

Those and other upgrades to the map have allowed the FCC to chart almost 330,000 more locations without broadband–which the FCC generously defined in 2015 as a connection with at least 25Mbps downloads and 3Mbps uploads–but also find more than 1 million new locations with broadband. 

In a call for the press last week, a senior FCC official said that in addition to those challenges, which can cover such hang-ups as a provider unable to install service within 10 days or without excessive connection charges, the commission contacted more than 800 providers to verify their network infrastructure or other details. 

The updated map data did not