Faster Internet Is Coming to America—as Soon as the Government Knows Where to Build It

Lawmakers demanded new maps after flawed data in past subsidy programs caused construction projects across the country to bypass many of the Americans that they were supposed to serve. Officials warn, however, that getting the mapping right will take time.

“We understand the urgency of getting broadband out there to everyone quickly,” said

Alan Davidson,

chief of the Department of Commerce office in charge of allocating the broadband funding. “We also know that we get one shot at this and we want to make sure we do it right.”

That could mean a delay in the expansion of service to people who have long struggled with slow internet.

Internet providers including

AT&T Inc.,

T 1.27%

Charter Communications Inc.,

CHTR 2.56%

Comcast Corp.

CMCSA 1.52%

, and

Verizon Communications Inc.

VZ 0.83%

have yet to include any of the 2021 infrastructure law’s broadband funding in their public financial projections for the coming years.

“The maps are not going to be issued from the FCC until a little bit later this year, and until that happens, the money really can’t start to flow at the state level,” AT&T Chief Executive

John Stankey

told analysts on a July conference call.

The issue is more than academic. State and local officials across the country say that faulty data have hurt efforts to connect their communities.

Randy Carlson, mayor of Harris, Minn., said some of his city’s estimated 1,127 people have decent internet, but service deteriorates outside the city center.

In Mr. Carlson’s census block, the FCC’s existing maps showed that rural broadband provider

CenturyLink

reported offering both fiber and digital-subscriber-line, or DSL, service at speeds that met the commission’s definition of broadband. In reality, that fiber line doesn’t run to Mr. Carlson’s home, and his DSL service struggles with large file downloads and video calls, he said.

“You kind of expect some of these weird things happening” with government programs, Mr. Carlson said. “But when it affects people, it’s a little harder to deal with.”

All told, a 2020 FCC program dedicating as much as $9.2 billion nationwide for broadband counted about 10% of Harris residents as eligible for funding, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

CenturyLink,

LUMN 0.72%

part of

Lumen Technologies Inc.,

said it erred in reporting the fiber service in Mr. Carlson’s census block, citing a problem with an automated mapping tool. As for Mr. Carlson’s slow DSL service, the company said it was required to report any census blocks where it offered a given speed, rather than the speed available at each individual location.

“Broadband mapping is not a perfect science,” a Lumen spokeswoman said, adding that the company supports the FCC’s new mapping effort and “is dedicated to bringing fiber to more communities in our service areas.”

An FCC spokeswoman said the 2020 program relied on the best data available at the time.

The U.S. has long lacked reliable maps of broadband service. In 2018, when the FCC released what it called modernized national maps,

Jessica Rosenworcel

—then an FCC commissioner and now its chairwoman—looked up her address. The map listed service that she knew wasn’t available, she said at the time.

Congress in 2020 ordered the FCC to improve the older system, which relied heavily on companies to self-report the areas they serve. But lawmakers didn’t fund their mandate until early 2021. The commission then spent another year and a half developing the new maps. A dispute over the mapping contractor contributed to the delay.

The FCC spokeswoman said the map project is “an unprecedented undertaking” involving vast amounts of data and technical hurdles.

The commission said earlier this month that it would publish the new maps in mid-November, but consumers and companies then get a chance to appeal any perceived inaccuracies, a step expected to add months to the process.

“The maps are going to be better, but they’re not going to be right the first time around,” said

Shirley Bloomfield,

CEO of NTCA, an association of mostly rural broadband providers. “It’s maybe toward the end of 2023 when you talk about money coming out the door.”

The new maps are supposed to improve on the old ones by recording service at a more granular level—location by location, rather than census block by census block.

To develop the data needed for the new maps, the FCC signed a contract of up to $45 million with CostQuest Associates Inc., a Cincinnati consulting firm.

The company tapped existing databases of addresses, tax parcels, building footprints and more. Its employees flipped through tens of thousands of satellite images, marked building locations that looked like homes and businesses, and used that information to create an algorithm that identified similar buildings across the country.

Some of the residents of Harris, Minn., have decent internet, but service deteriorates outside the city center.

CostQuest says that process identified about 114 million locations of buildings where customers might want broadband service.

Internet providers must file reports to the FCC by Sept. 1 that show the locations they can serve with high speeds.

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration will allocate funds to each state based on the FCC maps’ tally of unserved locations. Mr. Davidson said he expects the maps to be ready for this purpose sometime in the first half of 2023 after the challenge process runs its course.

“We want to make sure they’ve got a chance to kick the tires on the maps and ensure that their challenges are heard,” he said.

Several states are already developing plans for how to spend their share of the $42.5 billion. Mr. Davidson noted that smaller federal broadband programs aren’t waiting on the maps and are already distributing funds or will start soon.

Some state officials say they worry that the new maps will have the same problem as the old ones: Providers reporting a rosy picture of their service territory that doesn’t match the reality on the ground.

Christine Hallquist,

director of Vermont’s state broadband office, noted that some providers use wireless technology that can be affected by variables such as foliage.

“Did they take the speed during our fall stick season, when the leaves were off the trees, and say ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got this covered’,” she asked.

Jim Stegeman, CostQuest’s CEO, said the company is constantly updating its data and incorporating feedback.

“Nothing is perfect in the data that we have,” he said. “It will improve over time.”

Write to Ryan Tracy at [email protected], Drew FitzGerald at [email protected] and Anthony DeBarros at [email protected]