FCC 3-2 Broadband Deployment Report Shows Narrowing Divide; Critics Blast Underlying Data
The digital divide is narrowing "substantially," with Americans without a 25/3 Mbps connection dropping from 26.1 million at the end of 2016 to 21.3 million a year later, the FCC said Wednesday in its 2018 broadband deployment report. But the agency's minority Democratic commissioners dissented, saying the report is built on a shaky foundation of invalid data -- sentiments echoed by some observers. "The rosy picture ... is fundamentally at odds with reality," Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said. The agency withdrew and reworked an earlier draft due to "drastically overstated" deployment data from one ISP (see 1905010205).
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Both Democrats jabbed at that original draft. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said it's an "embarrassing fumble ... blindly accepting incorrect data." Starks said overstated data by Barrier Free shows "fundamental problems" with the agency's data analysis capabilities. He said in the future, the agency needs to do data checks and look at machine learning models that could help flag likely anomalous reporting. After Barrier Free had data problems, the ISP submitted corrected information.
The FCC said 4.3 million of those 4.8 million gaining broadband access were in rural areas. It said Americans' access to higher-speed services is growing even more rapidly, with people with access to at least 250/25 Mbps rising 36 percent in 2017 to 191.5 million, while for rural Americans that gained 85 percent. During 2018, broadband providers deployed fiber networks to 5.9 million additional homes, the biggest one-year increase on record, and USTelecom said capital spending rose in 2017 after declines in 2015 and 2016. At the end of 2017, 94 percent of the U.S. population had access to 25/3 Mbps; in urban areas, that was 98.3 percent, with 73.6 percent in rural areas and 67.9 percent on tribal lands, the agency said. It said the year ended with 89 percent of the U.S. having access to 100/10 Mbps, though only 58.6 percent of people in rural areas and 54.7 percent on tribal lands.
The FCC said steps taken in the past year to close the digital divide include the national Historic Preservation Act wireless infrastructure order (see 1803220027), local zoning-centric wireless infrastructure declaratory ruling (see 1809260029) and wireline network upgrades order (see 1806070021).
Republican commissioners noted the portrayed progress. "The FCC's policies are working," Brendan Carr said, but "far too many Americans" still lack high-speed access. Mike O'Rielly said a Remote Areas Fund auction should help bring access to people without any broadband option, while "albeit imperfect data" points to undeniably "rapid and robust" deployment progress, especially wireless.
The conclusion that the FCC's broadband "job is done [is] news to millions and millions of Americans who are stuck on the wrong side of the #digitaldivide," Rosenworcel tweeted Wednesday. "This report deserves a failing grade." She said the report's conclusion that broadband "is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis" doesn't jibe with the experience of many communities, rural households, tribal areas and "urban areas where redlining has led to broadband deserts."
Starks and Rosenworcel had a list of suggested data collection improvements for the agency, including ditching the current practice of counting a census block as served if there's a single customer in that block. Also problematic is FCC Form 477 letting fixed broadband providers report areas as served if they could serve them and mobile broadband providers report minimum advertised upload and download data speeds instead of speeds actually being provided, Starks said. Rosenworcel urged replacing the 25/3 Mbps standard with a 100 Mbps standard for broadband "and set Gigabit speeds in our sight." She said there needs to be more consideration of issues like pricing and how that affects adoption.
While even the FCC acknowledges its broadband mapping "horribly overstate[s] coverage ... there is zero mention of this in glowing report on own awesomeness," Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld tweeted. Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy's Gigi Sohn called the report "hopelessly flawed" and said it can't be the basis for policymaking. She said it also doesn't back Chairman Ajit Pai's "unsubstantiated" claims about his policies helping close the digital divide. She said the agency needs to require that broadband providers report only numbers actually served "rather than taking credit for serving those places they could serve." Sohn said that it should require providers measure access on an address level and provide non-introductory pricing information in their Form 477s and that it should validate industry data through such means as crowdsourcing.
"How can the FCC come to any conclusion when it knows the information it is basing its decision on is flawed?" the Benton Foundation asked. It said it's "unacceptable" to conclude broadband is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis" when millions of Americans lack access.
The FCC said it's required to report to Congress whether broadband is being deployed, "not whether it has already been deployed." The "strong progress" ISPs are making in deployment "warrant[s] a positive finding," it said.
O'Rielly, while voting to approve the report, also had criticisms. He chided its "outdated siloed approach" to looking at the fixed and mobile broadband markets separately when they can substitute for one another. The document done under Telecom Act Section 706 is one-sided in use of performance benchmarks for mobile service but not taking a similar approach to fixed service, he said.
Map Quest
Citing early results from the pilot broadband mapping effort in Missouri and Virginia, USTelecom said Wednesday it expects to report results to the FCC as soon as July, and it will have a national version available in Q3 2020. It said that national map should cost $10 million to $12 million and is showing its Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric approach is providing accurate and granular information about serviceable locations. The US-Telecom-led approach, which involves a variety of companies and industry groups, uses data sources including satellite imagery to aggregate all geolocations in the two states and create that broadband serviceable location fabric that will then be used as a basis for carrier reporting (see 1903210041).
The USTelecom coalition in a docket 11-10 posting Wednesday recapped a meeting with Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith, Office of Economics and Analytics Acting Chief Giulia McHenry and FCC Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force Director Chelsea Fallon. The teleco representatives laid out some early results and described more fully the methodology. They represented the association, ITTA and the Wireless ISP Association and companies including AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated, Frontier, TDS, Verizon and Windstream.