The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a
report on the FCC’s broadband mapping efforts. The GAO said that the FCC will have to grapple with incomplete or conflicting data sources as it maps out all of the locations in the U.S. that could be served by broadband. The government’s efforts to bridge the digital divide rely on data the FCC collects from broadband providers, which GAO has previously said overstates broadband service.
Additionally, the GAO said stakeholders it interviewed identified challenges the FCC faces with developing a location fabric, including incomplete or conflicting data sources, but said such challenges can be overcome by using multiple sources of data. According to stakeholders, the GAO noted that there is no one source of location data sufficient for FCC and its contract data company to develop a precise location fabric, and it is therefore necessary to integrate four types of data to have a complete location fabric. The GAO said these data can be sourced from federal, state, local and commercial sources.