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A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 22 december 2022

States contend with short timeline to correct broadband map

Continued from Front challenge, and that’s put-
ting it nicely, for years,”
But Congress in 2020 tasked said Kelly Workman, direc-
the FCC with creating a tor of West Virginia’s Office
more precise broadband of Broadband, said of the
map. It hired a company FCC’s maps. “Everyone in
called CostQuest, which West Virginia has known
tapped tax assessment for a long time that these
and land use records, as maps are not serving our
well as census and geo- state well.”
spatial data, to create the The Jan. 13 deadline was
underlying layer of the map set so that the FCC can
showing every address resolve challenges before
where broadband can the National Telecommu-
be installed. Then, internet nications and Information
service providers reported Administration announces
what internet speeds they states’ allotments in June
actually offer at each ad- 2023.
dress. The states will in turn fun-
To counter expected dis- nel the grant money to
crepancies, the public can several entities, including
challenge the map — an internet service providers,
option that wasn’t avail- local or tribal governments
able with the FCC’s census Jade Piros de Carvalho, director of the Office of Broadband Development in the Kansas Department and electric co-ops, to ex-
block-level maps. of Commerce, talks about the need for broadband internet service across the state with a map of pand networks where peo-
state grants for projects, Wednesday Dec. 13, 2022, in the department’s offices in Topeka, Kansas.
“I like to refer to (the new Associated Press ple don’t have good ser-
FCC map) as census block- vice. Entities that take this
penetrating radar ,” said determine the appropriate from internet providers, the tor. money will have to offer a
Jim Stritzinger, the director action,” Doty said, add- postal service and emer- Challenges to the map can low-cost service option.
of South Carolina’s broad- ing that she hopes to get gency dispatchers to iden- include assertions that lo- Government regulators will
band office, which report- 100,000 unique responses tify other discrepancies. cations are missing or that approve the price of that
ed 33,000 state addresses through the website before While some states are pour- the internet service depict- service.
missing from the map. the end of the year. ing millions of dollars into ed on the map isn’t actual- Each state will receive a
Mississippi’s state broad- Maine’s state broadband the challenge process, ly available. The challenges minimum of $100 million
band director, Sally Doty, office sent engineers to others say they lack the re- can be done in bulk, by and final allocations will be
said her office found a some 2,500 addresses sources to fully participate. state or local governments, based upon several fac-
“tremendous amount” of across populated areas Kansas’ state broadband or at an individual level, tors, including an analysis
addresses missing in high- where it predicted broad- office recently hired two where residents confirm the of unserved locations as
growth areas of the state, band technology was likely new staff members, boost- information for just their ad- shown on the FCC map.
including DeSoto and Mad- to be misreported. Over ing the total number to just dress. Unserved locations are
ison counties and along the course of two weeks, four. Rather than collect The mapping system West those without reliable ser-
the Gulf Coast. The state the engineers identified ap- data in bulk, the state has Virginia is using to fact vice of at least 25 Megabits
launched a website at the proximately 1,000 discrep- focused its efforts on webi- check the FCC map was per second (Mbps) down-
end of November where ancies between the infor- nars and public outreach created to provide city- load and 3 Mbps upload.
residents can run speed mation on the FCC map to train residents how to style addresses for large Officials in some states,
tests and fill out a survey and what actually exists in challenge the map them- rural areas of the state in including Texas and Ver-
about their internet service. the state, Meghan Grabill, selves. order to help emergency mont, have pressed for the
“If we have low speeds for a data analyst working on “We’re walking them step services workers respond to deadline to be extended,
an area that is reported as the project, said. The state by step through it,” said 911 calls and other emer- but the FCC has given no
covered, it will allow us to is combining its results from Jade Piros de Carvalho, gencies. indication it will move back
investigate that further and the field analysis with data Kansas’ broadband direc- “These maps have been a the Jan. 13 date.q

FTX founder agrees to extradition,

expected to fly to U.S.

ed to the collapse of cryp- a central role in the rapid he posed a flight risk. The
tocurrency exchange FTX. collapse of FTX and hid its founder and former CEO
The former FTX CEO ap- problems from the public of FTX, once worth tens of
peared at a Magistrate’s and investors. The Securities billions of dollars on paper,
Court and is expected to and Exchange Commission is being held in the Baha-
head to Odyssey Avia- said Bankman-Fried illegally mas’ Fox Hill prison, which
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, center, is escorted from a tion to return to the United used investors’ money to has been has been cited
Corrections Department van as he arrives at the Magistrate States, according to Ba- buy real estate on behalf by human rights activists as
Court building for a hearing, in Nassau, Bahamas, Wednesday, hamian news organization of himself and his family. having poor sanitation and
Dec. 21, 2022.
Associated Press Our News. The 30-year-old could po- as being infested with rats
Bahamian authorities ar- tentially spend the rest of and insects.
By KEN SWEET hamian court Wednesday rested Bankman-Fried last his life in jail. Once he’s back in the U.S.,
AP Business Writer that he has agreed to be week at the request of the Bankman-Fried was de- Bankman-Fried’s attorney
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam extradited to the U.S. to U.S. government. U.S. pros- nied bail Friday after a Ba- will be able to request that
Bankman-Fried told a Ba- face criminal charges relat- ecutors allege he played hamian judge ruled that he be released on bail.q