FCC Reaches MOU with NTIA, USDA and Treasury on Broadband Data Collection

The FCC on Tuesday posted a memorandum of understanding on the collection and reporting of data from federal broadband programs that it entered in May with NTIA and the Agriculture and Treasury departments. The MOU covers data and metrics from broadband programs that the FCC and NTIA oversee, as well as USDA Rural Utilities Service-administered efforts, and Treasury’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) and Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). The FCC didn’t comment on the delay between the document’s date and its release. The MOU requires that the agencies share information about the projects and make nonconfidential data about the projects publicly available “using tools such as the FCC's Broadband Funding Map.” The agencies will also notify each other about Freedom of Information Act requests for the data and coordinate their responses to them, the MOU said. It expires in four years but can be renewed if all agencies mutually consent.