Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) streamlined the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) process today by eliminating a requirement that data submissions be certified by a “certified professional engineer.” The new rule, adopted 3-0 by the new Republican-majority Commission, allows certification by a “qualified engineer” familiar with the specific broadband network’s design.
In 2022, the BDC —replacing FCC Form 477 — became the primary way to gather information about where broadband services are available nationwide and map unserved areas. Broadband providers report subscriber and service area data to the FCC every six months each year.
The National Broadband Map uses BDC data to determine which locations are underserved or unserved. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program relies on BDC data to determine which households are eligible for support.
“Soon after we adopted the certified professional engineer standard, it became clear that finding people with those qualifications was both difficult and in the view of the FCC unnecessary, and so we’ve been waiving this rule ever since,” said Chairman Brendan Carr during the FCC’s monthly agenda meeting.
In a statement published before the meeting, Carr wrote, “Having gone through multiple reporting cycles where the ‘certified professional engineer’ requirement has been waived, we now know a couple of important things about this rule. One, we have seen no evidence that the waiver has adversely affected the accuracy of the filings. That leads to the second thing we’ve learned: the rule was unnecessary in the first place.”
The certified professional engineer rule is “unworkable and impractical,” said newly sworn Commissioner Olivia Trusty during her first FCC meeting. “Thankfully, today’s item removes that unnecessary regulatory burden that could prevent the Commission from receiving timely, accurate broadband availability data, and replaces it with a more flexible approach that has been shown to work for providers.”
Carr noted during the FCC meeting that Trusty is a former staffer for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which was part of the implementation of the Broadband Data Act of 2020 that created BDC.
