Report Highlights FCC Broadband Map Fallacies

A recent report by the Institute for Local Self Reliance in Minnesota points out the problems with the FCC's National Broadband Map.

The National Broadband Map, based on Form 477 information submitted by ISP's, has come under fire across the industry as painting a much more rosy picture of broadband availability than actually exists. The ILSR report narrows its focus to a defined geographical area around Rochester, Minnesota to show just how bad the federal statistics are. 

The report's findings are not at all surprising. Spend a few minutes on the FCC's map and you'll start to notice numerous discrepencies, likely caused by errors on Form 477 as submitted by ISP's or as inputted by FCC staff. For example, does anyone really believe that Lenox Municipal Utilities has fiber-to-the-home in a 4 square block area of Pella, Iowa (just one of the discrepencies your author has scratched his head about when looking at the map)?

Hat's off to Christopher Mitchell and his team at ISLR for their continued hard work at supporting community broadband and helping cut through the noise of self-promotion that large ISP's have created.