Gov performance

For the first time in my memory, the Senate does not have the votes to approve the nominated FCC Commissioner, Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society]. This has meant that the FCC has been on hold and we’ve had a two-year deadlock between the two Democratic and Republican Commissioners on any controversial issues. There are a number of FCC initiatives that are on hold until there is a fifth Commissioner:

On November 23, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new rules, as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, establishing the Affordable Connectivity Program Transparency Data Collection, which will collect information related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) participating providers.

Since the Federal Communications Commission released its pre-production draft of its new Broadband Maps in November 2022, a wide range of public and private entities have asserted that the data is inaccurate and would result in significant misallocations of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program funding if errors are not corrected. Several state and local government entities have raised concerns that a January 13 deadline does not provide sufficient time to submit challenges.

Access to high-speed internet (i.e., broadband) has been a focus of congressional interest for decades as a significant—and growing—number of daily activities are conducted online. However, without accurate data, broadband maps may not reliably indicate need, and federal assistance may be provided to areas that already have sufficient service, leaving other areas unserved or underserved. The accuracy of the National Broadband Map is a key concern for many in Congress.

The Biden Administration launched an initiative, the Department of Agriculture's Rural Partners Network,  that has some interesting benefits for rural communities. The goal is to help rural areas maximize the benefits available from the federal government. The new program is putting federal employees directly in rural communities and making them available to help rural communities navigate the confusing federal bureaucracy. As an example, one of the primary roles of the Rural Partners Network is to help local communities find and apply for grants.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is like a start-up within the federal government, despite being nearly 45 years old. We delivered on programs to improve Internet connectivity while also notching big wins on spectrum policy, international standards, and other important tech policy issues. Highlights from the year included:

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee wants stakeholders to have more time to challenge the accuracy of the Federal Communication Commission's new broadband availability map given what they said were the “significant flaws’ already discovered in the draft map. The FCC has conceded the mapping is an iterative process that will be improved by stakeholder challenges. The senators said, “it is absolutely critical that states, tribes, localities, and stakeh

Twenty-six US senators—led by Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Thune (R-SD)—sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel highlighting important next steps in ensuring that the National Broadband Map provides a reliable depiction of broadband availability across the country. The senators are calling on the FCC to:

I suspect that there are already a lot of communities and other folks who are in violation of the license agreement to view and use the new Federal Communications Commission mapping fabric and associated data. CostQuest, the firm that created the mapping fabric, has provided communities and others with a basic license to view and utilize the mapping data strictly for the purpose of the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) process – for reviewing and challenging the FCC maps. Anybody that wants to use the mapping data for any other purpose must sign a different agreement and pay to utilize the da

In November 2022, the Federal Communications Commission released our pre-production draft of its new broadband maps. For the first time ever, the maps reflect broadband availability at the physical location level. In fact, prior FCC maps only provided this information at the census-block level. That means these new maps provide the best picture available to date of where broadband is and is not available across the country, and the maps will only get better over time as the FCC gets input from stakeholders across the country.