Communities collect granular broadband data amid wait for better federal maps

States have begun to produce their own mapping data for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant allocation. Local leaders said during a webinar hosted by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society that their efforts to provide more granular data come in a bid to better serve their residents and in response to deficiencies in the Federal Communication Commission's previous data collection process that relied on vendors to submit internet availability and speed data through its Form 477 process. Lonnie Hamilton, broadband planner at the Virginina Department of Housing and Community Development's Broadband Office (DHCD), worked with every broadband provider in Virginia to obtain the data, an effort he said was “surprisingly difficult.” Some providers missed submission deadlines, and many others needed technical assistance to help them provide the necessary information. But he said the finished product, which will be updated regularly, will be enormously helpful, as it will have nine-month-old data, compared to the FCC data — which is currently 18 months old. The FCC has faced criticism over the methodology behind its broadband mapping for years, which breaks availability coverage down by census block and deems a block served by broadband if just one property within it has access. In a bid to revamp the process, Congress passed the Broadband DATA Act, which mandated that the FCC change its data collection methods to show availability at a more granular level.