States Want More Time for Broadband Map Challenges
State broadband leaders asked the FCC and NTIA to extend deadlines for the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) grant program. The National Governors’ Association is participating in the effort to seek more time for broadband map challenges, said Maine Connectivity Authority President Andrew Butcher at an MCA board virtual meeting Friday. “The maps are far from accurate.”
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Maine received a $5.5 million award from NTIA to make plans for the BEAD and digital equity programs, Butcher told the board. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson and Gov. Janet Mills (D) are expected to announce the planning grants Thursday at the Maine Broadband Summit, he said.
Accessible map data from the FCC is a good thing, said Butcher. “It also is further evidence that there’s still a long way to go as far as how the federal government in particular is identifying where there’s service and where there’s not.” The MCA plans to launch a Maine map viewer for the public at this week’s summit and an outreach “campaign to correct the dots,” which will encourage and show how Maine residents may file individual challenges, he said.
“This is a fast-moving effort” with the map challenge process set to close Jan. 13, said Butcher. The Maine official has been working with other states’ broadband leaders on advocating to the NTIA and the FCC that they extend deadlines for map challenges and for allocating BEAD funds based on the maps, he said. The states also want NTIA to consider “staggering” BEAD allocation awards to allow for another round of map challenges, he said. “The National Governors Association is moving forward with those advocacy points and is looking to get additional signatures from additional states,” he said. Butcher cited support so far from California, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
“Pennsylvania is partnering with other states to advocate to the” FCC and NTIA “that they extend deadlines for national broadband map challenges and for the BEAD allocation announcement based on the maps,” a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development spokesperson emailed Friday. “While the new FCC-mapped data is an improvement, what’s reflected is far from accurate. States need more time, beyond the FCC’s [Jan. 13] Bulk Availability Challenge filing deadline, to review, analyze and submit challenges to the data.” States seek 60 more days for the challenges, the spokesperson said.
Vermont’s broadband office supports the NGA effort, said Clay Purvis, Vermont Department of Public Service telecom and connectivity director. NGA and California broadband officials didn’t comment. The FCC and NTIA also didn’t comment.
The FCC’s broadband map shows “unprecedented success realized by private investment in deploying broadband rapidly to the vast majority of Americans,” Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long wrote Friday. It allows the BEAD program to proceed with “a common dataset upon which informed interagency coordination, as well as congressional and Biden Administration oversight, can be grounded.” As the FCC revises the map in response to challenges, it “is critical that greater accuracy -- not partisan policy objectives -- serve as the lodestar.”