I’ve been looking at the new FCC National Broadband Maps and I’ve been trying to compare them to the latest maps I used for the Minnesota Broadband County Profiles last December (from Connected Nation). The MN maps reflect data from October 2022. The FCC Maps report “Data As Of Dec 31, 2022 (Last Updated: 5/24/23)”. So while there may be some updates, the numbers shouldn’t be too far off.
According to the FCC National Map, here’s how Minnesota stands:
- Wired Access 25/3: 90.95 percent
- Wired Access 100/20: 88.27 percent
- Any fixed broadband 25/3: 100 percent
- Any fixed broadband 100/20: 95.93
According to the Minnesota Broadband Task Force’s 2022 report (published Jan 2023), here’s how MN stands:
- Wired access 25/3: 92.03 percent
- Wired access 100/20: 88.29
The FCC wired numbers are much closer to the Minnesota numbers (which also looks at wired connections) than the fixed broadband numbers but they are different. The question is – which numbers do we use when? And what numbers are we going to be using tomorrow? For some folks, it would be nice to be able to use the more generous numbers and say we’re done. For others, it might be nice to use the lower numbers to get funding but hope goals change after the receive funding. For folks who live in these areas, the numbers don’t matter as much their own ability to get access. One of the problems, as Doug Dawson pointed out in his post yesterday, is that we’re asking the providers to report access, and it’s easy to over-report…
Anybody who is intimately familiar with the FCC maps knows that there is a lot of fiction buried in the reporting. There is one huge flaw in the FCC mapping system that has carried over from the previous FCC mapping regime – ISPs self-report the speeds they can deliver. Per the FCC mapping rules, ISPs can claim broadband marketing speeds rather than some approximation of actual speeds. In every county where I’ve delved deep into the local situation, I’ve found multiple ISPs that are overclaiming broadband speeds.
Doug does a great job going into the details so I won’t, except to include his second flaw in the system…
A second flaw in the FCC maps is the coverage areas claimed by ISPs. The FCC is counting on public broadband challenges or challenges by State Broadband Offices to somehow fix this problem – but that’s an unrealistic hope. Most people don’t know about the FCC maps and the challenge process – and even people who know about it are not motivated to file a challenge about an ISP that claims service at their home that’s not really available. This issue can apply to any technology, but it’s particularly a problem for WISPs and cellular broadband. It’s not easy for a knowledgeable engineer to accurately judge the coverage area of a wireless network from a given tower – I have to think it’s beyond the capability of the folks at a State Broadband Office to understand it enough to challenge coverage. But it doesn’t take any expertise to know that a WISP or a cellular company claiming ubiquitous 100/20 Mbps coverage across large areas is exaggerating both speed and coverage capabilities.
But that gets back to my question – which numbers do we use when? More pointedly, will these maps be used to define eligibility for grants. And will the goal posts change once the funds have been awarded?
I’ve pulled the numbers for each county. The fixed broadband, as you can see, is clearly and consistently higher than wired connection. Comparing the wired numbers from MN and FCC wired number below (the columns that are bold), you can see sometimes the numbers are closer but often they are not. And sometimes the MN numbers are higher; other times they are lower.
| County | 100/20 Mbps Connected Nation Data | 100/20 Mbps National BB Map Fixed | 100/20 National BB Map Wired | 25/3 National BB Map Wired |
| Aitkin | 60.36 | 99.74 | 70 | 72.96 |
| Anoka | 96.64 | 97.38 | 97.1 | 98.28 |
| Becker | 78.45 | 100 | 81.12 | 86.69 |
| Beltrami | 98.86 | 100 | 98.65 | 98.84 |
| Benton | 89.94 | 83.77 | 82.47 | 86.42 |
| Big Stone | 97.09 | 100 | 99.01 | 99.01 |
| Blue Earth | 81.88 | 96.05 | 75.33 | 86.69 |
| Brown | 79.96 | 95.37 | 75.97 | 79.02 |
| Carlton | 48.71 | 74.1 | 58.55 | 65.53 |
| Carver | 93.2 | 98.91 | 93.48 | 94.33 |
| Cass | 56.37 | 100 | 57.72 | 54.32 |
| Chippewa | 80.55 | 100 | 75.59 | 84.26 |
| Chisago | 73.63 | 77.31 | 76.95 | 79.2 |
| Clay | 92.06 | 100 | 91.39 | 93.53 |
| Clearwater | 98.85 | 100 | 98.5 | 99.17 |
| Cook | 90.95 | 100 | 91.75 | 91.88 |
| Cottonwood | 67.02 | 85.27 | 61.09 | 68.03 |
| Crow Wing | 87.51 | 97.6 | 87.81 | 91.28 |
| Dakota | 96.82 | 98.52 | 96.31 | 96.7 |
| Dodge | 84.2 | 99.84 | 88.43 | 89.91 |
| Douglas | 74.59 | 100 | 77.38 | 87.46 |
| Faribault | 72.68 | 90.72 | 61.97 | 83.56 |
| Fillmore | 64.95 | 85.81 | 66.36 | 70.52 |
| Freeborn | 86.36 | 99.26 | 85.55 | 86.4 |
| Goodhue | 78.56 | 94.26 | 82.57 | 83.55 |
| Grant | 77.71 | 100 | 77.11 | 91.9 |
| Hennepin | 98.69 | 99.11 | 99 | 99.16 |
| Houston | 82.98 | 82.28 | 82.16 | 85.42 |
| Hubbard | 90.07 | 99.99 | 91.44 | 92.67 |
| Isanti | 50.09 | 60.21 | 58.15 | 69.08 |
| Itasca | 85.5 | 100 | 89.07 | 90.01 |
| Jackson | 61.98 | 94.9 | 62.73 | 64.12 |
| Kanabec | 23.46 | 49.36 | 25.87 | 42.85 |
| Kandiyohi | 68.18 | 94.69 | 70.18 | 79.84 |
| Kittson | 87.57 | 100 | 86.58 | 86.58 |
| Koochiching | 72.3 | 93.55 | 74.04 | 75.77 |
| Lac qui Parle | 99.86 | 100 | 99.63 | 99.63 |
| Lake | 84.15 | 98.44 | 88.31 | 88.34 |
| Lake of the Woods | 74.26 | 100 | 73.6 | 85.31 |
| Le Sueur | 74.92 | 98.49 | 79.32 | 81.66 |
| Lincoln | 99.99 | 100 | 97.82 | 97.87 |
| Lyon | 84.27 | 100 | 79.48 | 80.02 |
| McLeod | 75.48 | 97.25 | 73.92 | 80.88 |
| Mahnomen | 70.81 | 100 | 71.41 | 78.29 |
| Marshall | 82.9 | 100 | 81.63 | 81.93 |
| Martin | 67.03 | 98.1 | 69.53 | 74.92 |
| Meeker | 72.85 | 93.22 | 74.3 | 77.52 |
| Mille Lacs | 66.71 | 90.63 | 71.45 | 76.54 |
| Morrison | 77.57 | 90.83 | 83.61 | 85.94 |
| Mower | 83.25 | 98.75 | 84.93 | 87.17 |
| Murray | 51.38 | 98.94 | 53.78 | 56.38 |
| Nicollet | 77.29 | 91.75 | 77.65 | 84.21 |
| Nobles | 80.27 | 96.9 | 77.36 | 79.94 |
| Norman | 55.52 | 100 | 80.46 | 85.63 |
| Olmsted | 94.38 | 98.93 | 93.01 | 94.06 |
| Otter Tail | 70.54 | 100 | 73.29 | 82.4 |
| Pennington | 99.4 | 100 | 98.82 | 99.2 |
| Pine | 35.1 | 77.03 | 40.8 | 48.39 |
| Pipestone | 80.7 | 100 | 78.98 | 81.41 |
| Polk | 95.24 | 100 | 95.99 | 96.06 |
| Pope | 79.15 | 100 | 79.82 | 87.11 |
| Ramsey | 99.63 | 99.51 | 99.47 | 99.7 |
| Red Lake | 100 | 100 | 91.73 | 100 |
| Redwood | 48.35 | 84.37 | 63.34 | 73.05 |
| Renville | 70.79 | 97.68 | 70.98 | 72.72 |
| Rice | 85.23 | 95.3 | 86.3 | 90.48 |
| Rock | 99.9 | 100 | 94.99 | 94.99 |
| Roseau | 90.71 | 100 | 93.34 | 94.41 |
| St. Louis | 74.89 | 88.06 | 73 | 78.06 |
| Scott | 92.04 | 98.46 | 94.58 | 95.6 |
| Sherburne | 82.82 | 88.3 | 87.65 | 90.84 |
| Sibley | 65.63 | 94.4 | 62.88 | 65.71 |
| Stearns | 84.69 | 90.92 | 85.22 | 89.66 |
| Steele | 88.28 | 99.97 | 88.89 | 89.56 |
| Stevens | 97.08 | 100 | 95.97 | 99.08 |
| Swift | 97.5 | 100 | 94.96 | 97.41 |
| Todd | 47.52 | 83.89 | 53.92 | 61.66 |
| Traverse | 67.5 | 100 | 73.91 | 74.48 |
| Wabasha | 71.24 | 93.44 | 71.08 | 75.57 |
| Wadena | 98.88 | 100 | 99.28 | 99.3 |
| Waseca | 75.12 | 99.97 | 75.53 | 77.4 |
| Washington | 93.59 | 95.3 | 94.53 | 96.53 |
| Watonwan | 71.06 | 99.92 | 67.66 | 73.75 |
| Wilkin | 77.48 | 99.97 | 75.65 | 84.85 |
| Winona | 85.62 | 96.66 | 85.42 | 86.59 |
| Wright | 78.02 | 85.23 | 80.09 | 85.36 |
| Yellow Medicine | 58.17 | 99.68 | 57.28 | 62.21 |