Attachment 1 - SOO Fabric.pdf

Attachment 1

Federal Communications Commission

Broadband Location Serviceable Fabric

Statement of Objectives (SOO)

June 1, 2021

Prepared By:

United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) 45 L Street NE

Washington, DC 20554

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Background

3. Contract Objectives

3.1 Project Activities

3.2 Contract Requirements

3.3 Data Usage Rights

3.3.1 Tier 1: Minimum Required Data Usage Rights

3.3.2 Tier 2: Preferred Data Usage Rights

3.3.3 Tier 3: Most-Preferred Data Usage Rights

4. Place of Performance

5. Period of Performance

6. Performance Standards

7. Government Furnished Property/Information

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

1. INTRODUCTION

This is a Statement of Objectives (SOO) for the provision of the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) to support the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s or Commission’s) Broadband Data Collection program. In the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (Broadband DATA Act), 47 U.S.C. § 641 et. seq, Congress tasked the Commission with creating the Fabric as “a common dataset of all locations in the United States where fixed broadband internet access service can be installed, as determined by the Commission.” The delivery of this dataset will support the various broadband mapping efforts required by the Broadband DATA Act.

The FCC is an independent agency established by the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, to regulate communications by wire, radio, television, satellite, and cable. The FCC has collected information about broadband availability since 2000, when it began collecting subscription and connection data for local telephone and broadband services through FCC Form 477. The FCC’s broadband data collection efforts have evolved over time, and in 2013 the Commission adopted the current FCC Form 477 requirements that fixed service providers report a list of census blocks in which they provide access to broadband, and mobile service providers submit geospatial data representing the areas in which they have network coverage.

In early 2020, Congress enacted the Broadband DATA Act which, among other things, requires the FCC to collect standardized, granular data on the availability and quality of both fixed and mobile broadband Internet access services; create publicly available coverage maps; establish processes for members of the public and other entities to challenge and verify the coverage maps, and to create a common dataset of all locations where fixed broadband Internet access service can be installed (together, the Broadband Data Collection). In July 2020 and January 2021, the FCC adopted rules to effectuate the mandates of the Act.

2. BACKGROUND

The Broadband Data Task Force, in consultation with Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB), Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), the Office of the Managing Director, and other FCC bureaus and offices, is directing the implementation of the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection.

The Broadband Data Collection includes several components. To fulfill the requirements of the Broadband DATA Act, the FCC first must collect data on the availability and quality of broadband Internet access service from both fixed and mobile providers, as well as from State, local, and Tribal government entities, other federal agencies, and third parties, if determined to be in the public interest.

Second, to support this collection, the FCC must also establish the Fabric, a set of data on all locations in the United States where fixed broadband Internet access service has been or could be installed, consistent with certain specified parameters, and incorporate the Fabric into the availability collection.

Fixed broadband providers must report their service area in the form of either a polygon shapefile or a list of addresses or locations, and the Fabric will form the foundation for the location-based or address-based reporting. Third, based on the availability collections, the FCC must create and publish maps that https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1822 depict the availability of fixed and mobile broadband services (both separately and combined). Fourth, the FCC must establish a user-friendly challenge process for the public, as well as State, local, and Tribal governmental entities, to challenge the information included in the Fabric or depicted in the public availability maps, and for providers to respond to such challenges (see 47 CFR § 642(b)(5)(A)). Fifth, the FCC must verify the accuracy and reliability of the availability data collected from providers and other entities. Sixth, to improve data accuracy, the FCC must conduct audits and collect crowdsourced data from entities or individuals on an ongoing basis about the deployment and availability of broadband service. Finally, the FCC must provide technical assistance to: 1) small broadband service providers, those with less than 100,000 connections, to assist them in complying with the requirements of the availability collection; 2) consumers and State, local, and Tribal governments to support their participation in the challenge process; and 3) Indian Tribes, in the form of 12 regional workshops to assist them with submitting verified deployment data. As described in more detail below, this procurement focuses on the second of those tasks, the development of the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric.

3. Contract Objectives

FCC’s contract objective is to establish a Fabric dataset that supports the Broadband Data Collection.

The Commission has already adopted some of the key definitions and standards for the Fabric in the Third Report and Order, and such definitions and standards are incorporated as requirements by reference herein.1 For example, the Commission adopted a definition of a Broadband Serviceable Location to be “a business or residential location in the United States at which fixed broadband Internet access service is, or can be, installed.” The Commission further decided that the data for each Broadband Serviceable Location (BSL) in the Fabric will be “a single point defined by a set of geographic coordinates that fall within the footprint of a building.” However, the Commission also recognized that, 1 Establishing the Digital Opportunity Data Collection; Modernizing the FCC Form 477 Data Program, WC Docket Nos. 19-195, 11-10, Third Report and Order, 36 FCC Rcd 1126 (2021).

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-20A1.pdf without knowing “the types of data and functionality that will be available through the procurement process,” it was not able to set all requirements at that time.

The FCC’s objectives, and its required and optional deliverables, for this Fabric procurement are described below. To generate the required deliverables, the Contractor shall generate a set of data on all of the structures in the United States and determine whether each structure is a BSL or not. We anticipate that the Contractor will use multiple data sources to generate the dataset and to make this determination. We also anticipate that the combination of underlying sources each offeror will propose to use to generate the deliverables will vary, and that certain underlying sources may have more restrictive data rights than preferred, as described in Section 3.3. Finally, we recognize that each offeror’s proposed approach to making the BSL determination could vary based on the sources used, and the offeror’s experience and expertise. The Contractor must work closely with, and accept guidance and direction from, FCC staff on the process of identifying BSLs and providing all the deliverables.

The objectives for the delivery of Fabric services include:

3.1 Project Activities

3.1.1. Required Activities

A. Project Plan and Kick-Off Meeting

In the first month of the base period, the Contractor shall provide the FCC Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) with a detailed Project Plan. The Contractor shall also coordinate a kick-off meeting with the Government in which the Contractor will describe its approach to creating the Fabric dataset and completing any Optional Activities described below. Generally, the Project Plan should address how and when the Contractor will fulfill the requirements of this contract, including the activities and deliverables described below. It should include the detailed steps the Contractor will take and the resources it will use to perform the required tasks. The Project Plan shall include: a timeline with milestones, a staffing plan identifying the roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders, and an internal communication plan. The Contractor shall keep the Project Plan up to date throughout the life of the contract to ensure it represents all activities and current timelines.

B. Fabric Dataset

The Contractor shall deliver a set of data to the FCC on all structures (as defined below) in the United States and its territories, including the 50 U.S. states (including all Tribal lands), the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands); this is the Fabric.

i. The Fabric shall include information (as defined below) on each structure, which is defined as:

1. A building where people live, to include Census-defined housing units; a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied (or if vacant, if intended for occupancy) as separate living quarters; or a building where people live in group quarters (e.g., a skilled nursing facility or college dormitory). Each such building would be classified as “residential.”

2. A building where people work, including buildings that house businesses, government entities or no,t-for-profit entities. Each such building would be classified as “non-residential.”

3. A structure that includes both residential and non-residential units would be classified as “multi-use.”

ii. The Fabric shall include the following information as fields for each structure:

1. A unique, standardized, alphanumeric string for each structure in the dataset that can be used to identify that structure

2. The latitude and longitude of a point falling within the boundary of the structure, to at least 5 digits of precision in WGS84 coordinate reference system

3. An address or addresses, if any, associated with each structure in a standardized format

4. The estimated number of residential and/or business units within each Multiple Dwelling Unit (MDU) and Multiple Tennant Unit (MTU)

5. An indication of whether each structure is a BSL, a location to which mass-market broadband Internet access service is or should be made available, made in consultation with the FCC

6. For each BSL, a classification of the structure as residential, business, or multi-use; or for each structure not classified as a BSL, a classification for the reason it is not a BSL (e.g., a government building, schools, library, hospital or other structure used by an entity that likely subscribes to enterprise/non-mass market service; or secondary structures on a property)

The Contractor shall deliver documentation describing the process used to create the Fabric, including the data and methods used to populate the fields for each structure, as well as how the Contractor identified structures as BSLs, determined unit counts, and identified locations as residential or business.

The Contractor shall deliver quality reports coinciding with each release, if the data are updated every six months, or otherwise at least twice per year if the data are updated more frequently. The quality report should describe the quality of the dataset, including its completeness, prevalence of over- or under-inclusion, and an assessment of the accuracy of the fields included.

The Contractor shall create and make accessible to the FCC an Application Programming Interface (API) to receive data for corrections to BSLs (from FCC site and governmental or other entities that might have location-specific information), and ability to incorporate updates to the Fabric coming from the Fabric challenge process, as appropriate.

3.1.2. Support and Special Projects Activity (Optional)

At the government’s discretion during any performance period, but only upon the Contracting Officer’s written authorization to proceed, the Contractor shall provide Support and Special Projects to support the Fabric under paragraph 3.1.1., paragraph B or to implement major modifications to the data. These services do not include services required under any other Section of this SOO. This optional work may be directed on a labor-hour basis, within the ceiling established under this contract, or may be performed on a Firm Fixed Price basis agreed upon in a bilateral modification.

Enabling the FCC to obtain from the Contractor the optional activities listed below (not already required by the SOO) provides it with the flexibility to act quickly as technology and agency needs evolve, or when special situations arise. These activities would provide additional support of the Fabric , and/or potentially improve its accuracy or completeness. The activities may include but are not limited to:

A. Provide additional information as part of the Fabric

Provide additional data fields, as agreed upon with the COR. Such data might include polygons that represent each structure’s footprint; an indicator of whether the point coordinates of each structure represent the building centroid, front-door location, or other point within the structure; or a quality or confidence metric for each data field for each structure.

B. USPS address validation

Incorporate data from United States Postal Service’s Address Matching System to ensure all addresses included in the Fabric are valid U.S. addresses.

C. Incorporation of location data from government entities

Review location data from federal, state, Tribal or local government agencies, if available and applicable, and use it to improve the Fabric dataset by, for example, de-duplicating locations or addresses and validating data.

D. Creation of Census-Bureau-data-based quality report

Provide staff to work with confidential (non-public) data from the U.S. Census Bureau;

compare the location, address, and unit-count data from the Fabric to Census data; and generate a data-quality report that the Contractor would provide to the FCC (i.e., aggregating or anonymizing data to meet Census Bureau requirements for the protection of confidential data).

E. Address matching

Ingest lists of addresses from ISP address datasets, and compare those addresses against those in the Fabric. The Contractor shall also provide information to the FCC and the ISPs about addresses that the Contractor is able to match to Fabric addresses, including the point identifier for each ISP address, and a confidence score for each of those matches.

F. Technical support for the Fabric challenges

Communicate directly with ISPs; state, Tribal, and local governments; consumers; and other entities who have submitted or are seeking to submit challenges to the Fabric.

Such communication could include answering questions about how to submit challenges, or following up with entities or individuals in a timely manner to obtain additional information about challenges that they submitted.

3.2 Contract Requirements

1. The contractor is required to have “expertise with respect to geographic information systems”.

47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(ii)(I)

2. The contract Period of Performance is not to exceed five (5) years. 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(ii)(III)(bb)

3. The contractor is prohibited from “selling, leasing, or otherwise disclosing for monetary consideration any Personally Identifiable Information” developed, accessed, collected, disclosed, obtained, or maintained in connection with this agreement to any entity other than for purposes authorized by this contract or by statute developed in the course of this work. 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(A)(ii)(III)(cc); 5 U.S.C. § 552a. Personally Identifiable Information is defined as information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

4. The dataset shall “at a minimum be updated every 6 months”. 47 U.S.C. § 642(b)(1)(B)(iv)

5. The contractor shall deliver an initial production version of the Fabric within 120 days of the award of the contract (Activity 3.1.1).

3.3 Data Usage Rights

The FCC prefers having the ability to make the Fabric provided as a deliverable under this contract fully accessible to the public, allowing individuals and organizations to access the data via website viewing, API, and/or download from the FCC website. However, the FCC also recognizes that vendors may rely on commercial data sources to which they have limited access rights or may desire to restrict access to datasets to preserve their commercial interests. This SOO therefore lays out 3 possible different Tiers of

Data Usage Rights below. Offerors should describe which Tier or Tiers of Rights, or combination thereof, they are able and willing to provide in their proposals. While any proposed data-usage rights scheme that meets at least the minimum requirements in Tier 1 is technically acceptable to the Government, the FCC prefers broader data-usage rights and fewer restrictions for parties accessing the data. If vendors can provide access and usage rights with fewer restrictions than those described in Tier 1, they should describe those rights and provide sample data rights language to be incorporated into the contract.

Note that the preference for broader data-usage rights applies to the required data fields described in Paragraph 3.1.1, not to the full set of data that vendors use to derive the required data. Vendors may describe more restrictive limits for data that are not required (e.g., building footprint data used to generate the required coordinates).

3.3.1 Tier 1: Minimum Required Data Usage Rights

• The Contractor shall grant to the FCC, including its agents (e.g., third-party contractors) and any FCC-established entities (e.g., the Universal Service Administration Company), a non-exclusive, perpetual license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This FCC license shall provide:

Unlimited rights to access, prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, prepare derivative works (e.g., maps, reports of location-weighted broadband availability by geography, sample frames for auditing, or additional quality reports), and distribute the data for internal use, including by and to personnel, third-party contractors, and other entities granted the same license, as necessary to accomplish the goals of the Broadband Data Collection;

Rights to publish aggregate/derivative data, such as broadband coverage by state, county, Metropolitan Statistical Area, Congressional District, Census Designated Place, tribal area, or other US Census Bureau-defined boundary;

Rights to publish and display data via an online map, or in reports or other static formats (e.g. PDF);

Rights to publish all of the relevant fields listed in section 3.1.1., paragraph B.ii above, about BSLs for a subset of locations to support Universal Service Fund programs; and

Rights to publish metadata (information about data such as content, format, source, rights, accuracy, provenance, frequency, periodicity, granularity, publisher or responsible party, contact information, method of collection, and other descriptions) via certain federal channels and websites, including data.gov (or its successors), consistent with the requirements of the Foundations for Evidence Based Policymaking Act, and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.2 o The FCC’s rights to access, prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, prepare derivative works, and otherwise publish the data provided as a deliverable under this contract as

2 See, e.g., 44 U.S.C §3511(c), which requires the establishment of a Federal Data Catalog, and 43 U.S.C. §2804, which describes the requirements for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

set forth above shall not expire at the conclusion of the contract (i.e., they shall be perpetual).

o The Contractor shall allow the FCC to provide Broadband Data Collection filers, including service providers, Tribal, state and local government entities, and approved third parties with access to the data provided in Activity 3.1.1, as described above, if the Contractor is unable or unwilling to provide such access directly.

o The FCC shall retain full, unlimited rights to any correction data submitted to the FCC by third parties (i.e., the FCC can use, copy, modify reproduce, prepare derivative works or publish the data, in whole or in part, in any manner, for any purpose, or authorize others to do so, in perpetuity), but shall grant the Contractor a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license to use such data for the purpose of correcting or otherwise modifying the Contractor’s data.

• The Contractor shall grant to filers of availability data in the Broadband Data Collection -including service providers; Tribal, state, and local governmental entities; and approved third parties - a limited end-user license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This end-user license shall provide:

Rights to access, use, copy, modify, reproduce, and prepare derivative works from the data subject to this end-user license as necessary to generate and submit broadband availability data to the FCC in the Broadband Data Collection;

and

Rights to access the data subject to this end-user license via API and/or download from the FCC’s website.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by any filer of broadband availability data in the Broadband Data Collection;

Ability to submit challenge/correction data to correct the data subject to this end-user license; and Ability to generate a list of points from the data subject to this end-user license from GIS data submitted in the Broadband Data Collection.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Limit access to data to the counties or states where a provider indicates it offers service (for service providers), legal jurisdiction (for a state, local, or Tribal governmental entity), or other appropriate restricted geography; and

Prohibit commercial use, publication, and/or non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

• The Contractor shall grant to other federal government agencies, including but not limited to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee, a limited end-user license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This end-user license shall provide:

Rights to publish aggregate/derivative data, such as broadband coverage by state, county, Metropolitan Statistical Area, Congressional District, Census Designated Place, tribal area, or other US Census Bureau-defined, or by other program- or project-defined areas;

Rights to publish and display data via an online map, or in reports or other static formats (e.g. PDF); and

Rights to access the data subject to this end-user license via API and/or download from the FCC’s website.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by any other federal government agency;

Ability to submit challenge/correction data to correct the data subject to this end-user license; and Ability to generate a list of points from the data subject to this end-user license from GIS data submitted in the Broadband Data Collection o End-user license terms may optionally:

Prohibit publication and non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

• The Contractor shall grant to other individuals (and non-filer third parties) o Web access to view and correct BSL data, but shall not be required to grant programmatic or scripted access; and o The ability to submit challenge/correction data (including appropriate privacy notice).

3.3.2 Tier 2: Preferred Data Usage Rights

• The Contractor shall grant to the FCC, including its agents (e.g., third-party contractors) and any FCC-established entities (including but not limited to the Universal Service Administration Company), a non-exclusive, perpetual license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This FCC license shall provide:

All FCC license rights and conditions described in the Tier 1: Minimum Required

Data Usage Rights section above; and Rights to publish or otherwise make publicly available the data on the FCC’s website, for download, or via API access, subject to an end-user license.

• The Contractor shall grant to any party accessing the data made publicly available by the FCC a limited end-user license to such data.

o This end-user license shall provide:

Rights to prepare, use, copy, modify, reproduce, and prepare derivative works from the data subject to this end-user license; and

Rights to access the data subject to this end-user license via API and/or download from the FCC’s website.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by the public; and

Ability to submit challenge/correction data to correct the data subject to this end-user license.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Prohibit commercial use, publication, and/or non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

3.3.3 Tier 3: Most-Preferred Data Usage Rights

• The Contractor shall grant to the FCC, including its agents (e.g., third-party contractors) and any FCC-established entities (e.g., the Universal Service Administration Company), a non-exclusive, perpetual license to the data provided as a deliverable under this contract.

o This FCC license shall provide:

All FCC license rights and conditions described in the Tier 2: Preferred Data

Usage Rights and Tier 1: Minimum Required Data Usage Rights sections above.

• The Contractor shall grant to any party accessing the data made publicly available by the FCC a limited end-user license to such data.

o This end-user license shall provide:

All end-user license rights described in the Tier 2: Preferred Data Usage Rights section above.

o End-user license terms must allow for:

Access to the data subject to this end-user license by the public.

o End-user license terms may optionally:

Require appropriate attribution, but cannot otherwise prohibit commercial use, publication, and/or non-commercial use for purposes beyond broadband mapping.

4. Place of Performance

The work shall be performed at the Contractor’s site except for meetings. Thus, FCC contractor badges will not be issued for performance of this requirement.

5. Period of Performance

The period of performance shall be five years in length with one twelve (12) month base year and four one (1) year option periods.

6. Performance Standards

The Contractor will be measured by meeting the deliverables in the contractor’s PWS on time and the quality of work being presented.

7. Government Furnished Property/Information

The Government will not furnish any property. Non confidential information will be furnished to the Contractor.