Penn State Extension has been working to develop and update state broadband maps for the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority, which will help Pennsylvania maximize its federal funding allocation under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for high-speed internet expansion.
To develop and update maps, educators evaluated the accuracy of industry-provided data, developed public broadband spatial analysis and mapping tools, and provided analyses.
Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, Pennsylvania will receive a portion of the $42.5 billion available. The portion is determined by a state’s percentage of unserved locations as identified by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband maps.
The project has identified more than 50,000 locations that were incorrectly reported as having access to high-speed internet. Challenges were submitted to the FCC earlier this year.
“So far, more than 28,000 of those challenges have been accepted, with several thousand still pending,” James Ladlee, Penn State Extension’s Emerging and Advanced Technology Initiative state program leader, said. “Each successful service-availability challenge is expected to positively influence Pennsylvania’s share of this investment, pushing the value of this work to, conservatively, tens of millions in additional broadband funding likely secured for the commonwealth.”
Pennsylvania submited the third most individual service-availability challenges nationwide.