Cellular home Internet coverage filings that were denying states funding... where are they now?

My biggest concern after analyzing v1 of the National Broadband Map that came out last November was over 2 million locations that would have been Unserved but for the presence of a fixed wireless or DSL coverage filing at 25/3 exactly. Because the location was considered “Underserved” instead of “Unserved” the state wouldn’t get funding for that location. But that’s not usable broadband, and the states should fund upgrades to those homes, and their allocation from the federal government should reflect that. I’m happy to report that the new version of the National Broadband Map makes a lot of progress on this issue. Of the 2 million that were previously Underserved (and Unserved without the 25/3 coverage) 42% have moved to Unserved, and will be eligible for funding. Thirty-three percent are still Underserved, and 20% have moved to Served at 100/20 or better.

Looking specifically at North Carolina, which had almost 10% of these locations (almost 200,000), we can see part of the story. In the previous map, for data as of June 2022, US Cellular claimed to cover 1.13 million NC locations with home cellular at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload on the number. In the new map, they only made that 25/3 filing for 224,000 locations, a difference of 907,000 locations. Consequently, 111,000 locations became Unserved from the 193,000 that were Underserved in the previous map. Overall, North Carolina added 114,000 Unserved locations from the previous version on the map.

I don’t mean to suggest this was the only factor at play. By all accounts, North Carolina has/had a very successful challenge process for exactly these types of filings. The difference in Unserved between the previous map and new map is a net number — it’s the number of Unserved in the previous map minus locations that become Served, plus locations that become Unserved. Though the FCC isn’t reporting on coverage challenges filed and accepted, it’s likely that the state’s successful challenges added even more to the Unserved number. It’s even possible that US Cellular, facing an onslaught of challenges to their filing, withdrew most of them even if they weren’t under challenge.

Notably, T-Mobile’s fixed wireless filings in North Carolina at 25/3 on the number didn’t change much. In the previous map they filed 1.06 million locations at 25/3 and in the new map they filed 1.04 million. It’s likely that these are the direct result of challenges.

Overall, I put this one down as a problem solved, and a victory for the new version of the map.