Pricing Data, Crowdsourcing Seen by Some as Broadband Mapping Must-Haves
While the FCC looks to revamp its broadband mapping regime, some broadband experts told us the effort is hampered by the discussion not focusing more on including pricing data and involving crowdsourced or locally provided coverage data. ISPs all know each other's prices, but "the public is the only one who doesn't know," said Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Director-Community Broadband Networks Initiative Chris Mitchell. The FCC said the proceeding is still open.
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Pricing data isn't likely to be added to a broadband map anytime soon, but the issue is being discussed more in public interest circles, said Angela Siefer, National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) executive director. If not included in the current broadband mapping proceeding, "maybe in the next one," she said. "It has to be something put in the mix."
The FCC for a decade has requested feedback on mapping best practices "that it then ignores," emailed Sascha Meinrath, Penn State University telecommunications chair and Measurement Lab co-founder. He said independent mapping using both Form 477 data and crowdsourced data collection efforts point to the official maps systematically overstating availability.
While not a perfect solution, crowdsourced data mapped onto Form 477 data would start to give a far more granular picture, said University of Virginia assistant professor Christopher Ali. Like the mobility fund map, the broadband map should have a more democratic challenge process for perceived inaccuracies, Ali said.
Any proposal relying on just Form 477 data "doesn't make the maps one iota better ... unless [ISPs] start reporting the truth," said CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson. Form 477 reporting also doesn't say much about actual consumer experience, especially in rural markets, he said. DSL speeds can vary notably between two customers depending on distance, and geocoded maps won't say anything about lines of sight that can greatly affect wireless, he said. Meanwhile, smaller ISPs in particular often aren't sophisticated enough to gather data correctly.
Dawson said there needs to be a feedback loop, probably involving local governments suggesting updates. He said some states are trying versions of that approach -- Minnesota's mapping uses Form 477 data but also updates that to reflect network improvements. He said having households be part of that feedback loop could have some problems, such as having poor broadband service not because of the network but because of issues like an old modem, which isn't the ISP's fault.
Rural broadband is often much worse than databases show, but carriers have an incentive to show an area has great coverage because that means grant money won't be available to competitors for overbuilding. NDIA's Siefer also said distinguishing between rural and urban broadband coverage is sometimes meaningless because both markets often suffer the same challenges of either no service or prohibitively expensive service.
Mitchell said more granular mapping might be costly for smaller ISPs, which could necessitate giving them "more leeway and time." He also said whatever approach the FCC takes needs to have overlapping approaches of independent verification, since different speed tests have different strengths and weaknesses. He said the FCC isn't likely to move quickly on a broadband map decision, though that could change if the agency were to make electronic filling of Form 477 -- an "overwhelming" chore for many small ISPs -- readily available.
Many see the proposal from USTelecom and others (see 1903210041) as most likely to get commissioner support; the agency and USTelecom didn't comment. "It would surprise me if that wasn't the case," Mitchell said. Talking about households instead of census blocks “sounds a lot better," Dawson said. NCTA pointed to its mapping proposal of shapefiles and crowdsourcing for verifying FCC data (see 1903220036).
Ali said the agency is likely to move on the USTelecom proposal by year's end, though big question marks remain about specifics on process and methodology, but the bigger issue is allowing regulated industries to present their own data, he said. "This is why we have regulators," he said.