Rural areas need broadband to lure remote workers, but lousy federal connectivity maps may hinder buildout

Millions of Americans began working from home during the pandemic, and many companies are allowing the practice to continue. That could be a continued boon for rural communities wanting to lure such workers, but lack of connectivity often stands in the way. Last year's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill had $65 billion for broadband buildout, but there's a problem: the Federal Communications Commission's maps are too lousy to show where broadband is needed, Editor Emeritus Urban C. Lehner writes for DTN/The Progressive Farmer:

"Consider: If even a single household in a U.S. Census block has broadband service, the FCC deems the entire block served. That may make sense in cities and suburbs, but rural census blocks can be enormous. And all it takes to count even one household as 'served' is for internet service providers to say yes when asked on the FCC's survey whether they 'could or do' provide service. As a result, the FCC's mapmaking methodology muddles the rural-broadband picture in important ways, argues Payton Flower, a recent University of Nebraska ag-econ grad, in her senior honors thesis." That means it's not only possible but likely that large swaths of rural America falsely look as though they have broadband service, Payton writes. The paper examines the challenges of mapping Nebraska's broadband status, but the issues affecting Nebraska apply most anywhere else rural too.

Another problem: the FCC's broadband maps depend on data self-reported by telecoms companies that have an incentive to overstate their rural reach in order to score federal funding. The FCC just launched a tool meant to gather more accurate information from service providers about broadband service, but the tool has been criticized for still relying primarily on self-reported telecoms data. An "FCC representative said the agency will also cross-check provider data with crowdsourced information," Diana Goovaerts reports for Fierce Telecom. "But the narrow scope of its data collection means the map won’t include information on things like adoption, affordability or the quality of the broadband service that’s actually delivered."

A better solution, Payton argues, is for states to keep a list of addresses in rural areas and which have broadband availability. Not only would that be more accurate, but the FCC seems to be more inclined to work with states that gather their own data. Georgia and Virginia are two examples of that, and Nebraska is beginning to do so as well, Lehner reports. Individuals can also test and report their connectivity via a free smartphone app launched by nonprofits in 2019 in an effort to create a nationwide rural broadband map. And Microsoft, which has long criticized the FCC's maps, just launched its own broadband mapping tool that gathers data from more diverse sources.

How to solve the issue is under debate, but there's no question that it must be solved, Lehner writes: "Some defenders of the status quo regard the lack of high-speed internet as part of the penalty people pay for choosing to live in the country. They rarely say that aloud, but some think it. Twenty years ago, when high-speed internet was in its infancy, they might have had a point. Today broadband internet is a necessity of modern life. Telecommuting, tele-medicine, online education and precision agriculture are all difficult or impossible without it. It will take time and money to extend broadband's reach in the countryside. It will take less of both if we have more accurate maps."