FCC Collection of More-Detailed Broadband Data Going Well, Official Says
The FCC received broadband availability data from most companies filing the new Form 477 report, an FCC official said Tuesday. The FCC is still processing the data submitted, but has received more than 95 percent of the roughly 7,000 filings expected, the official said. The revised form narrows broadband data collection to a census tract level from 5-digit ZIP codes, and distinguishes between residential and business connections. The collection didn’t go completely without error; some companies missed the deadline and are now pleading for extensions.
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Form 477 filings were due Monday. The deadline was originally March 2, but the FCC extended it after major telecom industry associations flooded the agency with extension requests (CD Feb 24 p8). Since Friday, the FCC has received fresh extension requests from about 13 companies, but they're mostly small. The companies proposed a range of extensions, from five to 60 days, with most asking for 45 more days.
Several companies blamed the new requirement itself for their delay. Several small carriers said they hadn’t previously kept census tract information, referring to the Form 477 revision as a “significant departure” that has strained staff and other resources.
Cbeyond experienced problems submitting data to the FCC Web site, the carrier said. The site rejected the company’s submissions “numerous times,” it said. “The census tract data now required in the new revised Form 477 is not currently being tracked by [Cbeyond] in the same format as being supplied” on the FCC Web site, “causing an import problem into the system thus making our submission incomplete,” Cbeyond said. Cbeyond needs 45 more days “to manually look up each customer address and then manually type into the Geocoding system website to obtain the correct census tract code.”
Guam wireless carrier DoCoMo Pacific said it’s unable to report data in the form the FCC wants, even if the company receives a hardship waiver. The FCC said companies that couldn’t report census tracts could instead provide a list of addresses or Geographic Information System coordinates. But neither alternative is possible in Guam, the wireless carrier said. Guam lacks an organized address system, and official maps of the island “are missing a great many roads,” the company said. DoCoMo can’t report GIS coordinates, either, because “to do so requires the availability of address information,” it said. To remedy the problem, the FCC should let DoCoMo report on a Guam-wide basis, and give the company 60 more days to submit data, it said.