FCC Overhauls Its Broadband Data Collection Rules and Modernizes its Broadband Mapping

On August 18, 2020, the FCC’s final rules were published for the development of a new, detailed national broadband map to determine what areas of the country are served and unserved by fixed and mobile broadband. This will better inform policymakers and consumers where further investment is needed to deploy broadband. This is a major overhaul of the FCC’s broadband reporting rules and is intended to make its broadband mapping—and the data on which it is based—much more reliable and accurate than it has historically been. With millions of U.S. employees and students working and studying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic – now entering its sixth month—high quality broadband has truly become essential, often life-saving, infrastructure to every American, like access to the electric grid. The lack of accurate data was exposed in December 2019 when the FCC suspended the Mobility Fund Phase II reverse auction following an FCC report detailing inaccuracies in the 4G LTE mobile broadband coverage data reported by mobile providers. To address this, under these new broadband data collection rules, future broadband mapping by the FCC will be based on granular broadband availability and performance data reported semiannually by fixed and mobile broadband providers. The reported data will also be subject to multiple sources of verification, including a third party challenge process.

In the Second Report and Order in its Digital Opportunity Data Collection rulemaking,¹ begun one year earlier, the FCC took concrete action to address the “compelling and immediate need” for better broadband deployment data. In doing so, the Order also responds to the mandates of Congress’ Broadband DATA Act enacted in March 2020, in which Congress required the FCC to issue final rules within 180 days (1) requiring the collection of granular data from broadband providers on the availability and performance of broadband services; (2) creating publicly available coverage maps; (3) establishing processes for the challenge and verification of coverage maps; and (4) creating a common database where fixed broadband services exist or can readily be provisioned.

Historically, the FCC’s broadband data collection has, since 2000, relied on the FCC Form 477. Since 2013, the FCC has had a Form 477 form filing requirement that all fixed service providers do census block-level reporting of where they offer broadband access. While admittedly “imperfect,” that data relying exclusively on existing broadband providers, without further verification, helped the Commission identify at least many areas where broadband was unavailable. However, the need for more granular and verifiable data has become increasingly important to target high cost support to truly unserved areas and to avoid subsidizing overbuilding.

The new broadband data collection rules require that all terrestrial fixed and satellite service providers must report either polygon shapefiles or lists of addresses or locations that make up their service areas. Fixed wireless providers must report their shapefiles in the form of wireless propagation maps and detail the speeds and latency of their service, or a list of addresses or locations that reflect their service areas. Providers must submit an explanation of the methodology or methodologies used, including how distances from aggregation points were determined. The FCC also has established maximum “buffers” around network facilities such as distribution or coaxial plant to define potential “maximum” coverage for specific fixed technologies, to which the provider can actually serve locations with broadband. That is, if it cannot serve locations with broadband up to the maximum distance from the aggregation point, the provider should exclude those areas from reporting as served by broadband. The maximum buffers for fixed broadband technologies are:

• DSL (at 25/3 Mbps or greater) – 6,600 feet from the DSLAM
• Hybrid-Fiber Coax (HFC or cable) -12,000 feet from the aggregation point
• Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) – 196,000 feet from the OLT to the ONT (Optical Network Termination)

The Commission will also require mobile broadband providers to use propagation modeling to generate technology-specific maps showing 4G LTE coverage, 3G networks and next-generation 5G-NR networks. To avoid inaccuracies or discrepancies in data previously reported for 4G LTE coverage, the FCC will require each mobile coverage map to reflect coverage areas whether wireless users should expect to receive the minimum required download speed of at least 5 Mbps and upload speed of 1 Mbps, with not less than a 90% cell edge coverage probability and a cell loading of not less than 50%. Order, paras. 37-39. For 5G-NR networks, the FCC requires those wireless providers to use a minimum speed threshold of 7/1 Mbps at the cell edge. Furthermore, 5G-NR service providers will need to submit deployment data based on a 35/3 Mbps minimum speed threshold at the cell edge.

The FCC will also require mobile providers to provide detailed information about their propagation models and link budgets to verify the accuracy of their propagation models.