New legislation proposed to “fix” the map Some of them felt that there was simply not enough time to analyze the data after gaining access to it. The deadline to challenge the accuracy of these location counts passed in January, but many state broadband offices and the legislators that represent them have made it clear they were unhappy with the process. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that established this program was bipartisan, and so is the concern over the current state of the map. These counts are important because the number of total locations and unserved locations in each state will define how much funding each state receives of the over $42 billion available through the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD). Locations served with speeds less than 100 down and 20 up are considered underserved.

Those with throughput speeds less than 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload are considered unserved. The second issue regards how many of those locations do not have access to broadband service.Only residential buildings are eligible and many multi-dwelling units (MDUs) are considered a single location. The first is a disagreement about the number of broadband service locations (BSLs) that exist in each state.The focus has been on two primary issues: A lot of energy has been expended in the last several months to dispute the FCC National Broadband Map.

Ookla map