All broadband providers are forced to deal with collecting their broadband deployment data for the FCC and the public, and then potentially facing a confusing and lengthy challenge process to their data submissions. As the FCC notes:
The Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (Broadband DATA Act) requires the Commission to collect granular data from service providers and based upon these data, publish maps depicting fixed broadband availability on a location-by-location basis and mobile broadband availability coverage areas. To implement the Broadband DATA Act, the Commission launched the BDC [Broadband Data Collection] to collect such data. To ensure the accuracy of these data, the Broadband DATA Act also required the Commission to establish challenge processes and to conduct verifications and audits. (Draft Sixth Order, at para. 2).
Moreover, the Broadband DATA Act, sets specific requirements for how providers determine their service areas, requires the Commission to establish and overlay fixed broadband availability data on the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric), and requires the Commission to establish processes for verifying the accuracy of the provider-reported data. It is a lot of work.
In order to ease the burden on broadband providers in providing broadband data and dealing with challenges, the agency at its May 20, 2026, meeting is set to adopt a Sixth Report and Order (Sixth Order) and Fifth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Fifth Further Notice) in Docket 19-195 in which it takes “several steps to streamline audits and verifications, improve challenge processes, and reduce regulatory burdens that add costs without a corresponding benefit to the quality of provider-reported data, all while ensuring that the data depicted on the National Broadband Map (NBM) are accurate.”
In the Sixth Order, the FCC makes the following changes:
Modify its rules so that Form 477 uses the same definition of “broadband” as the BDC.
Facilities-based providers of broadband services—both fixed and mobile—are required to report in their Form 477 filings the number of broadband connections in service (i.e., subscriptions) on the “as of” date of the filing. For Form 477 purposes, a broadband connection is currently defined as “[a] wired line, wireless channel, or satellite service that terminates at an end user location or mobile device and enables the end user to receive information from and/or send information to the internet at information transfer rates exceeding 200 kilobits per second (kbps) in at least one direction.” Meanwhile, the BDC collects information on the availability of broadband internet access service, which is defined in the Broadband DATA Act as “a mass-market retail service by wire or radio that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all internet endpoints, including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the operation of the communications service, but excluding dial-up internet access service.” Specifically, Form 477 will now collect data on connections that do not exceed the “200 kbps in at least one direction” floor established in the prior definition. (Id., at para. 8).
Eliminate the requirement to notify service providers of Fabric challenges and the requirement that service providers be afforded an opportunity to respond to such challenges during the Fabric development cycle.
And remove the obligation of providers to update their BDC data based on adverse verification results and add section 1.7009(e) to require Commission staff to modify or remove the provider’s BDC data from the National Broadband Map after the provider is notified of an adverse audit or verification finding.
The Sixth Order will become effective 30 days after it appears in the Federal Register.
In the Fifth Further Notice, the Commission seeks comments on ways to simplify and streamline the coverage restoration process. The coverage restoration process occurs when the provider concedes or where the FCC upholds a challenge to that provider’s fixed or mobile broadband availability data; the provider must remove its claimed coverage for the challenged location or area. To regain coverage credit in that location the Commission’s rules require a restoration process for the provider to demonstrate that it can make service available to the removed location or area.
Industry comments will be due 30 days after the Fifth Further Notice appears in the Federal Register.