Iowa senators ask FCC for better rural broadband map

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Iowa's senators, Republicans Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, are pressuring the Federal Communications Commission to create more accurate maps of broadband access in rural America. As the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley has considerable clout.

In an open letter to FCC Chair Ajit Pai, the senators said the maps "drastically overstate" the level of broadband access in rural Iowa, Matt Kelley reports for Radio Iowa. For instance, the map says that Chickasaw County has universal broadband access, but that's not true, said the letter: "Users’ data available from technology companies suggests that only 6 percent of Chickasaw County residents have access to the internet at broadband speeds."

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have complained about the accuracy of the FCC map since it was published last year. The main reason for its inaccuracy is that its data comes from telecommunications companies, which have an incentive to overstate their rural reach, since that qualifies them for state and federal grants to build out rural broadband.

Another reason: Even in places where telecoms did build out rural broadband, they often used slower, cheaper Digital Subscriber Line technology instead of fiber. DSL once cleared the minimum download speed of 10 megabytes per second required by the Connect America Fund, but the FCC increased the minimum download speed for broadband to the more widely accepted 25 mbps in February 2018.