The FCC published requirements for filing bulk challenges to its broadband serviceable location data in its “Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric,” an online database. The fabric is a common dataset of all U.S. locations where fixed broadband internet access can be installed. Providers’ availability data will be overlaid onto the fabric.
Those who file data to the fabric must match up their locations to the fabric, according to the agency’s Broadband Data Task Force, Wireline Competition Bureau, and Office of Economics and Analytics. Service providers, governments, and other entities and organizations can challenge or propose corrections to the data.
If the same entity submits multiple fabric challenges at the same time, then those “bulk” challenges must be submitted in the BDC system via file upload. Information that must be included are: the entity’s name and contact information, the locations subject to challenge, the category of the challenge for each, and evidence to support the challenge.
The FCC also published data specifications that include more information that must be part of bulk challenge filings. It says bulk challenge documents must be organized in a “common separated value format.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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