Hopefully, the word is getting out that individuals can challenge the FCC mapping. We’ve known for years that the FCC mapping is full of errors. ISPs often claim coverage and broadband speeds that are not actually available.
The new FCC map includes the ability to challenge the information that ISPs claim about the coverage at your home or business. The challenge process is built directly into the FCC Broadband map. Anybody can zero in on the map and see the broadband options that ISPs say are available at your location. There are a number of issues you can challenge for a given ISP:
- The ISP denied a request for service via phone, the company’s website, or another method.
- The ISP does not offer the technology reported on the FCC broadband map.
- The ISP is unable or failed to schedule an installation date within 10 business days of your service request.
- The ISP scheduled an installation but failed to perform the install at the scheduled date and time.
- The ISP wants a fee greater than the advertised fee for an installation.
- The ISP does not offer a product with the speed reported on the map. This challenge doesn’t say the ISP doesn’t deliver the speed, just that they didn’t offer the speed listed on the map.
- No wireless or satellite signal is available at your location.
- The ISP must construct new network to reach your location. Report if the ISP wants you to pay for construction.
If you challenge any of these items for a given ISP, the FCC will forward on your challenge to the ISP. If that ISP doesn’t respond or dispute the challenge, it must change its reporting for that location on the FCC map. For example, if it doesn’t offer service at your location, it must take you off its FCC map. If the ISP doesn’t offer the speed claimed to the FCC, it would have to lower the claimed speed it offers.
If the ISP disputes your claim, it must provide evidence to you and to the FCC that broadband is available at your location. After a dispute, the ISP has 60 days to reach an agreement with you about its claim. If you and the ISP can’t come to an agreement, the FCC says that it will then resolve the dispute within 90 days. That’s a real puzzler because the FCC doesn’t have the staff to process large volumes of such claims – they are banking on the ISP and the consumer reaching an agreement or the ISP backing down on the claim made on the maps.
The FCC hopes that over time that millions of such challenges will clean up the FCC mapping. The FCC believes that nobody knows more than you about what is available at your home. Rural folks, in particular, have dealt with ISPs that advertise but can’t actually deliver broadband to their home.
The challenge is somewhat weak in that making a challenge will rarely find you a broadband solution. But it’s possible that an ISP will agree to connect you after you make a challenge. The real benefit of the challenge process is to the whole community in that the FCC map gets cleaned up so that we can finally see and count the folks who can’t buy broadband. When it’s proven that your area doesn’t have broadband, the area becomes available for broadband grants.
Unfortunately, the challenge does not include the one thing that folks most want to challenge. You can’t file a formal challenge against an ISP that delivers speed that are far slower than what they sold to you. For example, you can’t file a formal challenge if an ISP sells you ‘up to’ 100 Mbps but delivers 3 Mbps. The FCC will accept this information, but they will treat it as a consumer complaint and not a mapping challenge. Unlike the challenge process, an ISP does not have to respond to a complaint. In fact, by deregulating broadband, the FCC under Ajit Pai weakened the complaint process to the point that it is toothless.
Note that you must provide your name and contact information to make a challenge because the FCC or an ISP might want to contact you. This means you can only challenge for your own location and not your neighbors. The real benefit of the challenge process will come if enough people in neighborhoods make the complaint to get the area maps corrected.
The glaring omission that is left off of the challenge is the fact that one can not challenge the service provided. At my place there are 3 different satellite service providers but no land line service of any kind, no way to challenge that. I did challenge the mapping of my wood shed as being available for internet service. Not only is there no power available I don’t want the wood going on line and ordering new sharper axes or faster wood splitters.
When I did challenge the wood shed I did try to insult the FCC as much as possible knowing that the challenge was a waste of time so wanted to get my 2c in.
The sad thing about this is that we pay the government to protect the peoples interest and for the most part the alphabet agency’s are just the lackeys of the big special interest groups.
Something that just occurred to me as I was rereading the post:
“When it’s proven that your area doesn’t have broadband, the area becomes available for broadband grants.”
If Starlink, for example, or more than one satellite provider claims to cover an area or the US given time and the FCC accepts that then the next step would be to sue the FCC to stop giving out grants and other moneys. The areas are covered so no government money needs to be expended to provide service to areas that already have “service”.
Hopefully someone in congress would then ask why the funds are not being spent and do something about it. Probably just after pig learn how to fly.
The FCC does not consider unlicensed fixed wireless or satellite as broadband for purposes of grant allocation.
Apparently the FCC considers an area covered with broadband if there is satellite service available at any cost or crappy service.