The FCC is Proposing Changes in How it Maps the Digital Divide

For more than a decade, federal programs have relied on Federal Communications Commission (FCC) data to answer a deceptively simple question: who has broadband internet access and who does not? The answer determines where billions of dollars in federal infrastructure funding go. Getting it right matters enormously. Getting it wrong means money fails to reach places that need it most. Two recent actions by the FCC—a coverage restoration process that will launch May 7, and a draft rulemaking that would significantly streamline how the agency collects broadband data—raise important questions about whether the National Broadband Map will get more accurate or less, and what the implications are for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) Program, the largest broadband deployment program in American history.