BarrierFree Acknowledges Broadband Data Error, Expects Fix; FCC Reviewing
BarrierFree acknowledged an error in its FCC Form 477 filings of December 2017 broadband deployment data, which it expects to be corrected soon. Free Press this week said "wildly" inflated BarrierFree data apparently led FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in highlighting…
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a draft report, to overstate broadband deployment improvement in 2017, drawing concern from commission Democrats (see 1903060034). The FCC "is looking into the matter," said a Pai spokesperson Thursday. "A portion of the submission was parsed incorrectly in the upload process," emailed BarrierFree Chief Operating Officer Jim Gerbig. "With the government shutdown in January, we were unable to submit revised documents before the full report went live. Also, the deployment data only reflected one transmission technology (fiber), and should have included wireless as well. We are working with the FCC to improve our 477 data for the December 2017 filing, and expect to have it resolved soon." He said BarrierFree is "building one of the nation's fastest Internet networks," including through fixed wireless in the northeast corridor: "New York State is one of our highest served areas and is focus for future expansion." Free Press Research Director Derek Turner said the FCC hadn't responded to the group's request to remedy BarrierFree's "tremendous over-reporting" of deployment before it adopts a Telecom Act Section 706 broadband report. "I would not be surprised if the Commission took a little time to respond, but not too long; this is something that they (and anyone with software that can handle a data set this large) can check and verify," he emailed. "I am surprised the FCC itself did not catch it." Although Free Press believes "the Pai FCC routinely makes irresponsible causal claims about the impact of its policies," Turner hopes "his office and the career staff at the FCC would recognize the need for quality data."