On November 20, 2014, the FCC released a Public Notice announcing that the FCC Form 477 Local Competition and Broadband Report filing interface, which had been unavailable since October 7 due to ongoing technical difficulties, has been reopened. The new deadline for filing the form is December 11.
As we noted in our previous filing alert, the reporting requirements for the Form 477 were recently revised. This report previously only collected data about the number and types of broadband and voice subscribers served by reporting entities. As of 2014, however, the FCC assumed responsibility for the collection of data on broadband deployment, which collection was previously overseen by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. As a result, in addition to collecting broadband and voice telephone subscription data, the new Form 477 will collect data on the locations where broadband facilities are deployed and this data will be used to populate and update the National Broadband Map.
Specific changes to the filing requirements include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Filers will submit the required deployment and subscription data on a nationwide, rather than state-by-state basis;
- Fixed and mobile broadband service data (coverage areas and number of connections) must be provided in terms of advertised upload/download speed, rather than speed tiers;
- Providers of mobile voice services must report coverage areas by technology and spectrum band; and
- Providers of fixed voice and interconnected VoIP services must report the number of subscriptions by census tract.
Reporting entities should be mindful that going forward, the deadline for filing Form 477 will be October 1 annually.