As a follow-up to the Broadband discussion at the December Council meeting, here is some information that was recently shared on a NSGIC (National States Geographic Information Council) discussion board by Shelby Johnson of the State of Arkansas GIS Office:
“The FCC recently announced that challenges to the current version of the Fabric (version two) should be filed by March 15, 2023 in order to have the best chance of being resolved in time for results to be included in the next version of the Fabric (version three). Version three of the Fabric will be released in conjunction with the Broadband Data Collection (BDC) filing window for provider availability data as of June 30, 2023 and will appear along with provider reported availability data on Broadbandmap.gov in the Fall of 2023.
The announcement also provides “best practice” guidance for submitting bulk challenges to the Fabric data. These best practices are based on our review of the bulk challenges submitted to version one of the Fabric and include tips on how to align your data with the Fabric.
You may read the full text of the Public Notice here: https://www.fcc.gov/document/best-practices-broadband-fabric-challenges-announced. Additional resources to assist users with viewing and interacting with the Fabric are available at help.bdc.fcc.gov, and questions may be directed to https://help.bdc.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new.
The current version of Fabric is available for review by stakeholders who have executed a no-cost license. If you currently do not have a license to the Fabric, you can follow the steps in this article to receive one: https://help.bdc.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/6785010654235-How-Government-Entities-Can-Access-the-Location-Fabric-.
The FCC will continue to accept challenges to provider-reported availability data on an ongoing and rolling basis.”