NTIA to Move Forward With Current Timeline on BEAD Despite Extension Requests

Despite numerous requests from states and other entities, NTIA declined to extend the timeline for challenging the FCC's new broadband map. The agency set Friday as the target for eligible entities to submit challenges for the next iteration of the map that will be used for broadband, equity, access, and deployment (BEAD) program funding allocations (see 2211100072). Unannounced updates to map data, including recently, complicated states’ challenge preparations, Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCCB) officials told us.

“Unfortunately, a delay in the timeline would mean a delay in providing funding to communities who desperately need it, and it will not address many of the process concerns we have heard,” the agency posted Friday: “Every day we delay is another day that communities are not connected.” NTIA said it's continuing toward its goal of allocating BEAD funding by June 30.

Multiple states reported submitting tens of thousands of challenges to the FCC broadband map by Friday’s deadline. NTIA said the FCC has received more than 1 million challenges on availability data and added more than 1 million additional locations to the map.

Vermont challenged about 20,000 address-level locations Friday after earlier finding about 67,000 out of 247,000 locations in error in the broadband fabric, said VCCB Executive Director Christine Hallquist. Not getting an extension “could work in our favor” or disfavor, said Hallquist. “If Vermont’s maps are less inaccurate than other states because we’re a small state, we could get a windfall on this, or we could lose a lot of money on this.” The VCCB understands the federal government will continue to accept challenges after the deadline, but it “can’t guarantee they’ll be included,” said Communications and Outreach Coordinator Herryn Herzog.

Maine is filing about 100,000 bulk challenges and believes “we've helped facilitate several thousand more through our ‘Correct The Dots’ campaign,” Maine Connectivity Authority President Andrew Butcher emailed Friday. Extending the challenge window wouldn’t have meant much without “a staggering of BEAD funds accordingly,” he said. “If they can't be staggered we don't want to delay the funding awards as … getting funds distributed as quickly as possible is our priority.”

“Pennsylvania shared its concerns” about the Jan. 13 deadline with NTIA and the FCC, a Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) spokesperson emailed. “While an extension was not granted, the Broadband Authority was able to work closely with Penn State to submit approximately 35,000 locations as part of a bulk availability challenge to the FCC.” DCED announced the challenge Friday. The authority held nine listening sessions around the state to raise awareness about the FCC map and challenges, added the spokesperson: “Work on the FCC map will be a continual process” and Pennsylvania is developing its own data for a statewide map.

More time would have helped Vermont “get it right,” said Herzog. Staff “had to go back and rework” many of the challenges they planned to submit due to unannounced map updates, she said. “States are finding this out this week when we’re trying to rush to get to the deadline.” The FCC made changes to availability data on Dec. 20 “that caused trouble,” said Herzog. The commission wasn’t clear in advice given in office hours hosted by NTIA State Broadband Leaders Network this week and last, she said, “and all of the states are experiencing errors based on that confusion.” The FCC didn't comment.

“The CostQuest Fabric was updated and re-released just after the new year,” the Pennsylvania DCED spokesperson said. “This did impact the Authority’s challenge as the provider coverage data also changed. The approach that Pennsylvania used had to be re-applied to an entirely new dataset.” Maine also experienced complications from unannounced map updates, said Butcher.

“It’s been very painful” to prepare challenges on time, said Hallquist. “We’ve spent hundreds of hours without knowing what the return on investment would even be.” The FCC should change its “totally ridiculous” process, including by first relying on more-accurate maps by states closer to the ground, said the Vermont official: Relying on ISP self-reporting is like letting “the fox watch the henhouse.”