Report Shows Comcast Continues To Lie About Its Broadband Coverage

As we've noted a few times now, U.S. taxpayers have doled out more than $400 million to map broadband access, yet regulators are still struggling to get it right. U.S. ISPs routinely overstate broadband availability and coverage, and they've historically challenged efforts to improve broadband maps lest it truly illustrate the downsides of monopoly power and limited competition.

Case in point: a Colorado resident complained to Ars Technica that he couldn't get Comcast broadband service at his address, despite Comcast claims that he could. The outlet dug a little deeper and found that Comcast's broadband maps, including the ones submitted to the FCC, dramatically overstated the ISP's coverage across large swaths of the user's neighborhood:

Upon reviewing Hillier's address, we verified that it's impossible to order service at the home on Comcast's website. Just as Hillier told the FCC, Comcast's online availability checker says it's an invalid address"-even though Comcast not only told the FCC it serves the home but also disputed Hillier's challenge when he pointed out the error.

We found similar evidence suggesting Comcast submitted false broadband coverage information at dozens of homes near Hillier's Arvada address and on a street in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The FCC's new mapping program includes a challenge system that's supposed to allow residents, towns, or competitors to challenge inaccurate ISP data. But that system needs a lot of work despite a decade of effort and $400 million. Comcast automatically defended its bad data, forcing the users to jump through hoops to try and prove his very obvious lack of Comcast broadband service:

I submitted proof from Comcast/Xfinity's own systems that my address was not served by this provider despite being reported as such to you by Comcast/Xfinity... I expect more from a government body like the FCC [than] to just say go sort it out and let us know how it turns out,'" he wrote in a response to the FCC that he shared with Ars.

As Ars correctly notes, the FCC has a shaky track record when it comes to standing up to monopolies that artificially inflate their broadband coverage. Wireless carriers also have a long history of over-stating broadband and wireless coverage, and the GAO has been complaining about the FCC's timidity on holding ISPs accountable for the better part of the last decade.

With more than $45 billion in subsidies (thanks to the Infrastructure Act) stumbling down the road, you're going to be seeing a lot of new complaints about ISPs inflating their broadband availability to nab subsidies they probably don't deserve. You'll also see countless stories about how the feckless FCC - whose processes have long favored powerful monopolies - dropping the ball.

Keep in mind that Comcast is also participating in a lobbying and smear campaign to prevent the seating of Gigi Sohn to the FCC, ensuring that the agency lacks the voting majority to do much of anything deemed controversial by the telecom lobby - including holding them accountable for inflated broadband coverage claims.