Hawaii has access to “broadband in name only,” lawyers for the...
Hawaii has access to “broadband in name only,” lawyers for the state told the FCC chairman in an ex parte letter filed Monday (http://xrl.us/bmw26m). The state questioned the FCC’s use of the National Broadband Map and NTIA classifications of broadband…
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to determine eligibility for Remote Areas Fund (RAF) support. Specifically, “shortcomings in the data” available through the map could overestimate the availability of broadband in Hawaiian rural areas, “and a corresponding omission of these areas from critically-needed RAF support,” the state said. The shortcomings are due to “insufficiently granular” census-block level data, and a “discrepancy between the NTIA’s low benchmark for broadband speeds and the Commission’s higher benchmark,” which could result in the map reporting large portions of Hawaii as being connected “while nonetheless having little or no access to broadband,” the state said. “For instance, areas in Hawaii that have only wireless coverage at 2G speeds will show on the NBM as having access to broadband despite being far below the speed necessary for the benefits that the Commission and the State envision from broadband access."