CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — West Virginians must submit challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s draft broadband coverage map before Friday.
Residents can search the FCC’s draft map for a specific location, such as a home or business address, to view details on available broadband services.
West Virginians can submit a location challenge, indicating an address is missing, or an availability challenge, indicating broadband availability is incorrect.
Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito have been urging residents to check the accuracy of the maps since shortly after it was released in November.
“I fought to ensure that anyone can challenge the accuracy of these coverage maps, and I encourage every West Virginian to check their coverage on the FCC’s updated map and submit a challenge if it is wrong before Jan. 13,” Manchin said in a statement.
The final map will be used to allocate $42 billion in federal funds to states and territories to help expand access to affordable high-speed internet through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
“As we look at the dollars — billions of dollars — that are going into our states we want to make sure the promises are kept,” Capito said. “The promise is that everybody will have broadband accessibility, but also vibrant broadband, not something that’s difficult or too expensive and something that you can reach from your home or business.”
During an information session in December, Jamie Hoffmann, program manager for the Office of Broadband, outlined some of the initial problems the office has identified with the FCC’s draft map.
The FCC’s map shows a total of 902,699 “broadband serviceable locations” in the state, but the Office of Broadband has identified “a minimum of 138,000 locations missing from the map.”
Additionally, because the FCC’s map includes “satellite coverage,” most of West Virginia appears to be “100% served.”
“That information is a bit misleading for the public,” Hoffman said.
The Office of Broadband plans to submit its own challenges to the map on behalf of the state, Hoffman said.
Information released by the Pew Charitable Trusts also highlighted several areas of concern with the new maps.
Speed tests, a common tool for crowdsourcing maps of broadband service, are not considered by the FCC as sufficient evidence on their own for challenging fixed service on the map, although the tests will be allowed for challenging mobile service.
Additionally, the map only shows if broadband service is “available,” but doesn’t mention affordability or quality of the service.
“The FCC’s new map is far more sophisticated than its predecessors, but its structure raises more sophisticated challenges as well,” Pew’s research says. “Improving the accuracy of the map through this first public challenge window — before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration sets the funding allocation for the BEAD program — will be critical to ensure that each state has sufficient funding to make progress in closing the digital divide.”
Using the search bar, type in the address you want to view information on. The map should automatically zoom to your location.
After finding your location, a side-panel on the right-hand side of the screen will populate location and service information.
If your location is missing, be sure to select the building footprint or space of your location in order to submit a Location Challenge.
How to Submit a Location Challenge:
After searching a location, select the building footprint or space to where the point location layer is missing.
Once the location is selected, select “Challenge Location”
You will be required to fill out a form regarding information about your location.
After a challenge is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email informing you that it has been received by the FCC.
If a location is available on the map that includes inaccurate information, navigate to “Location Challenge” in the side-panel to complete the form.
You will be required to fill out a form regarding information about your location.
After a challenge is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email informing you that it has been received by the FCC.
If a location is available on the map that includes inaccurate information, navigate to “Location Challenge” in the side-panel to complete the form.
Complete the following form to dispute the provider’s claim on service availability.