Inaccurate maps are delaying the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's broadband funding:
Nearly nine months after Congress passed President Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the federal government has yet to allocate any of the $42.5 billion in funding the legislation set aside for expanding broadband service in underserved communities, according to The Wall Street Journal. Under the law, the Commerce Department can't release that money until the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publishes new coverage maps that more accurately show homes and businesses that don't have access to high-speed internet.
Inaccurate coverage data has long derailed efforts by the federal government to address the rural broadband divide. The previous system the FCC used to map internet availability relied on Form 477 filings from service providers. Those documents have been known for their errors and exaggerations. In 2020, Congress began requiring the FCC to collect more robust coverage data as part of the Broadband DATA Act. However, it wasn't until early 2021 that lawmakers funded the mandate and in August of that same year that the Commission published its first updated map.
Following a contractor dispute, the FCC will publish its latest maps sometime in mid-November. Once they're available, both consumers and companies will a chance to challenge the agency's data. As a result of that extra step, funding from the broadband plan likely won't begin making its way to ISPs until the end of 2023, according to one analyst The Journal interviewed.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday August 16 2022, @06:45PM (3 children)
The FCC should do regular random spot checks, and fine the companies for false reporting.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @06:55PM (2 children)
What makes it a not simple solution is that Congress needs to fund it. One of the tools Congress uses to get around a mandate is to not appropriate money to execute it (sort of like not sending over money to hire auditors for the IRS so that they could audit complex tax filings (i.e., tax filings from rich people)).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @07:02PM
Funding for the Enforcement Division of the FCC has been a joke for decades.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2022, @07:53PM
For obvious reasons the reinvigorated IRS auditors will not be chasing after rich people, they never did, and they never will. That would kill a big golden goose of bribes and campaign funding