U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Pat Roberts (R-KS), along with U.S. Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) and other Kansas congressional members, on Monday requested that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) improve how it collects voice and broadband subscription and deployment data.
“Many Kansans’ access to affordable and reliable broadband services relies on federal programs that distribute resources for deployment,” the senators wrote in a May 6 letter sent to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “But if the information that the federal government uses is not specific or accurate, the agencies administering these programs are not equipped to make appropriate decisions.”
The senators are specifically concerned about the accuracy of the commission’s Form 477, a one-form, standardized collection process for telecom providers to submit data on broadband services, local telephone service competition and mobile telephone services.
The FCC in 2017 adopted a rulemaking to evaluate how to improve the quality of the data collected on Form 477 and is receiving comments.
“As the principal tool used by the FCC to gather data on communications services to inform policymaking, the current Form 477 data collection processes fall short in depicting where fixed and mobile broadband services are available or lacking, with one of the most extreme examples of inaccuracy found in our home state of Kansas,” the senators wrote. “This is especially problematic because this data is used to determine where billions of federal dollars are allocated for broadband deployment.”
Sens. Moran and Roberts and Rep. Estes and their colleagues asked the FCC to address “the precision of this critical data collection” to also prevent the overbuilding of existing broadband networks in their state and urged the FCC to take immediate action to improve the accuracy of broadband availability maps.
The FCC’s current broadband availability maps, they wrote, don’t utilize data “that is granular enough to adequately depict broadband availability in rural communities” because Form 477 data collection policies require an entire census block be considered as served with broadband service even if the service is offered only in one location within a census block.
“Since census blocks in rural communities are larger than their urban counterparts, rural communities are particularly threatened by this policy,” according to their letter. “As a result, Kansas communities could be denied eligibility to participate in existing federal funding programs for broadband deployment regardless of their actual need.”