Any West Virginian knows we can’t exactly trust the federal government to get it right when it comes to understanding the Mountain State. We should feel no differently about the Federal Communications Commission’s updated National Broadband Map — and take seriously the plea from our own officials that we log on to report inaccuracies in the depiction of our internet service.

At broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home, residents can enter their home address and review whether the federal government’s report on broadband availability at that location is accurate

If it’s any indication of how little attention the folks in Washington, D.C., pay to detail, one reporter in this newsroom typed in her home address, only to discover that the FCC claims “address not in broadband serviceable location fabric database;” but that a horribly mangled version of the name of her street is listed. Further, when she clicked on the version of her address that used an incorrect street name, the assessment was “no location data.”

The next step is taking advantage of the option to submit a challenge to the data on location, availability or speed. That happens at fcc.gov/BroadbandData/consumers. Individuals have until Jan. 13 to submit challenges. But U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. said the state has already seen approximately 2,400 speed tests that indicate the FCC map is inaccurate. Manchin said the state plans to file a bulk challenge.

“Why are we putting such heavy emphasis on this?” U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., asked. “Because the amount we get is going to be calculated on how many are unserved or underserved in our region. That is the key element: Unserved or underserved areas. We think that West Virginia has been way undercounted here, and that is a source of great concern for us.”

Clearly federal bureaucrats can’t be trusted to do their jobs properly when it comes to getting West Virginia what it needs. What else is new? The difference here is we have a chance to do something about it.

Capito is right, there is a great deal riding on this. As usual, getting it right is up to us.