The FCC just released its most recent annual report on the state of US broadband. This report is mandated by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which requires the FCC to “determine whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion”. The FCC concludes in this latest report that broadband deployment is reasonable and that actions taken by this Commission are helping to close the broadband gap.

I take exception to several findings in this latest report. First, everybody in the country now understands that the FCC’s conclusions are based upon dreadfully inaccurate 477 data reported by ISPs. There have been numerous studies undertaken at the state and local levels that show that the FCC maps undercount households without broadband. Even USTelecom, the group mostly representing the largest telcos showed that the FCC maps in Missouri and Virginia classified 38% of rural homes as being served when in fact they were unserved. Microsoft has been gathering credible data showing that well over 150 million homes aren’t connecting at the FCC’s defined broadband speed of 25/3 Mbps.

For the FCC to draw any conclusions based upon inaccurate 477 data is ridiculous. A few years ago the FCC could have claimed to not understand the extent to which their data is flawed, but they’ve been shown extensive evidence that the 477 data is incredibly bad, and yet they still plowed forward in this report pretending that statistics based upon 477 data have any meaning. There is not one number in this report that has even the slightest amount of credibility and the FCC knows this.

With the knowledge that the FCC now has about the inaccuracy of their data, this FCC should have humbly admitted that they don’t know the number of households that don’t have broadband. The report could have discussed ways that the Commission is trying to fix the bad data and described steps they have taken to improve rural broadband. But for this report to lead off with a claim that the number of homes without broadband fell by 18% in 2018 is a joke – there is zero chance that’s an accurate statistic. This report should have stated that external analysis has shown that the state of broadband is a lot worse than what they’ve reported in prior annual reports.

I also take exception to the opening statement of the report where the FCC claims that its top goal is “closing the digital divide and bringing the educational, healthcare, social, and civic benefits of connectivity to all Americans seeking broadband access.” This FCC’s top goal is clearly to eliminate regulatory rules that create any obligations for the largest carriers. This FCC already completely deregulated broadband – something an agency would never do if their goal was to improve broadband access. Most of the major dockets that have been approved by this FCC have made it easier for the big carriers to deploy 5G or to otherwise avoid any regulatory burdens.

It’s insulting to the American people for the agency to state that their top goal is improving broadband when their actions show that their priorities are elsewhere. Regulatory agencies are not supposed to engage in propaganda, and this document reeks of self-promotion.

Finally, this report trots out the oft-repeated message that broadband is improving because of this FCC’s effort to remove barriers to broadband investment. I don’t think Chairman Pai makes a speech or writes an opinion that doesn’t bring up this disproved argument. We know by now that those without broadband fall into two categories – rural homes that don’t have access to a broadband connection and urban households that can’t afford broadband. The big telcos aren’t spending any of their cash to solve these two problems.

There has been a lot of fiber built in recent years. AT&T built fiber to pass 12 million homes as a condition for its merger with DirecTV – an effort the company announced was done this past summer. Verizon has been building fiber to bolster their cellular network, including an expansion of small cell sites – largely as a way to reduce their reliance on paying transport to others. These fiber efforts have nothing to do with the repeal of net neutrality and the ending of broadband regulation. Chairman Pai probably ought to cut back on making this claim, because his real legacy is that he’s emboldened the big cable companies to begin regularly increasing broadband rates since there’s no threat of regulatory oversight. Chairman Pai and his light-touch regulation will get the credit for why broadband costs $100 per month a few years from now.