Data & Mapping

The Federal Communications Commission has been making admirable progress on its new broadband maps, and recently it opened up its system for internet service providers (ISPs) to input coverage data against the new Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared an update on July 1 announcing the FCC had opened its new system to collect information on where 2,500 broadband providers deliver service. Providers have until September 1 to submit data. The new federal broadband data is supposed to make up for the Form 477 flaw, or the fact that the FCC has historically relied on coverage data per census block, as submitted by internet service providers.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the release of Data Specifications for Bulk Fabric Challenge Data, which sets forth the requirements for filing bulk challenges to broadband serviceable location (BSL) data in the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric. The Bulk Fabric Data Specification is available here. The FCC also provides further details on which locations are considered BSLs in the production version of the Fabric.

The Broadband Data Task Force announced the opening of the inaugural Broadband Data Collection (BDC) filing window. Facilities-based broadband service providers may begin to file in the BDC system data that reflects where they make mass-market internet access service available as of June 30, 2022. Such data must be filed no later than September 1, 2022.

The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Data Task Force (Task Force), Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), and Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) announce that the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) that will be used for the inaugural Broadband Data Collection (BDC) is now available for broadband service providers and governmental entities to access. Broadband availability data as of June 30, 2022 can be submitted in the BDC beginning on June 30, 2022, and initial filings are due no later than September 1, 2022. 

The New York State Public Service Commission released a first-of-its-kind, interactive broadband map to provide the most detailed depiction of broadband infrastructure in New York to date.

Thanks to nearly $1 billion in funding from a variety of sources, West Virginia officials are working to provide high-speed broadband to 300,000 households in the state that are currently lacking service. The funding comes from American Rescue Plan Act allocations, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and other sources that were wrapped into Gov Jim Justice (R-WV)'s $1 billion plan released in October 2021.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar released the initial 2022 Texas Broadband Plan on June 15. The new broadband plan, from Texas' Broadband Development Office (BDO) outlines the state's goals for improving broadband access and affordability. Most notably, Fierce reports, the BDO aims to develop a statewide broadband map by January 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission reminds all facilities-based providers of fixed or mobile broadband internet access service of their duty to timely file complete and accurate data in the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) on a biannual basis. Providers may begin submitting their data on June 30, 2022, and must complete their submissions no later than September 1, 2022.

The OpenVault Insights Report for the first quarter of 2022 shows that broadband usage remains high. Average household broadband usage in March 2022 was measured at 514 gigabytes, staying over half a terabyte of data used for the average household. This is a drop from 536 gigabytes in the fourth quarter of 2021, but the first quarter has always shown seasonally lower usage than at the end of the previous year. Usage for the first quarter is up 11% from the 462 gigabytes in the first quarter of 2021.