Christine Parker, Senior GIS Analyst at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, led the March National Broadband Mapping Coalition monthly call, covering for Coalition leader Dustin Loup who is on family leave. The call took place on March 27, 2024.
Christine introduced Jenny Miller of EducationSuperHighway, the featured speaker for the March monthly call, to describe their work on the state challenge process. EducationSuperHighway focuses on the closing the digital divide for the 17 million household that fall into the affordability gap—i.e., households that have access to the Internet but cannot afford to connect. Residents of multi-dwelling units (MDUs) make up a significant portion of this group, representing 20-25% of unconnected households nationwide. Compounding the challenge of securing BEAD funding to enable Internet access for this group, FCC broadband data maps do not accurately reflect MDU connectivity.
EducationSuperHighway has contracted a consultant to verify broadband service to BEAD-eligible MDUs. As an example, they found 172 instances of inaccurate self-reporting by ISPs out of 431 claims of service to MDUs in the state of Delaware, or a 40% error rate in ISP-provided data. Jenny then walked through several examples of what MDU residents might experience in attempting to order service from providers listed on FCC maps as offering broadband services to their locations. In each case, the ISP responded that the indicated service was in fact not available. In addition to what they found in Delaware, she presented examples with similar results from Montana and Kansas.
Jenny went on to share their learnings from preparing submissions in the state challenge process. In the first case she described, they identified a location in Virginia with a lower income population served by T-Mobile. When they submitted an availability challenge following a failed attempt to order service, T-Mobile did not contest the challenge, demonstrating that challenges can work, and the process may be simpler than it first appears. She then went on to describe an example involving a low-income housing MDU in Colorado they were able to identify as a community anchor institute (CAI) and successfully submit a challenge using the state portal.
Another key learning concerns Cellular Licensed Fixed Wireless (CLFW) service. Jenny shared their finding that CLFW providers often overstate coverage and throttle throughput during high-use periods. EducationSuperHighway has taken the position that areas solely served by CLFW should be designated as underserved by default. In line with this, NTIA recently approved Georgia’s pre-challenge modification of areas covered by CLFW as underserved.
Finally, EducationSuperHighway has found that challenges in general are hard and time-consuming. This is especially true for MDU challenges. And while updated MDU language has significantly reduced the burden of proof, submitting an MDU challenge is still cumbersome.
Jenny then invited questions from participants. Harold Feld of Public Knowledge asked about the reasons behind lack of broadband access for MDUs. Jenny agreed with Harold’s contention that MDU owners exercise their proprietary rights to block competitive service. On the issue of providers overstating service availability, Harold cited an example of a provider receiving a $10K fine for claiming coverage where none existed to block entry of a competitor.
In answer to Christine’s question about types of evidence works best in challenges, Jenny replied that they are currently working on an analysis of successful state challenge submissions. Eric Zan of EducationSuperHighway followed up by describing how providers are making it more difficult to collect the information needed to submit a challenge, making the case for putting the onus on the provider rather than consumers. Other participants shared their stories of difficulties in collecting data and preparing challenges.
A recording of the call is available to Coalition members on request (info@marconisociety.org). The National Broadband Mapping Coalition monthly call series will continue with the next call scheduled for Wednesday, April 24.
