Government Spending Billions To Expand Broadband but Can't Tell Who Needs It (Los Payasos)

 In November 2021, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1.2 trillion grab bag of public spending wish list items. One of those projects, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, would expand broadband access to communities that currently lack access to high-speed internet. BEAD would dole out $42.45 billion in state grants, and the Government Accountability Office estimated that the projects could require as many as 23,000 additional telecom workers to complete.

The only problem is that the government currently has no idea where broadband actually is and is not available.

...To determine what areas need investment, the government relies on maps from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But despite costing $350 million, the FCC's maps are notoriously unreliable and have been for many years.

...Now, with more than $40 billion in state grants on the line, states are scrambling to challenge the new maps, which cost the FCC nearly $45 million in addition to the $350 million previously spent. Of course, the best option would be for the federal government to not have spent those billions in the first place and let states address their own needs: Before the passage of the infrastructure bill, Georgia not only made its own maps but partnered with Windstream to jointly spend $300 million expanding high-speed fiber internet access in the state...more