Summary of Requirements.pdf

Attachment 1 Summary of Requirements

Background

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) has a requirement for wireless engineering, analytical, and consulting advisory services to support the requirements of the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (Broadband DATA Act or BDA), Pub. L. No. 116-130, codified at 47 U.S.C. § 641 et. seq.

The BDA, enacted in March 2020, requires the FCC to collect more granular and consistent data from broadband internet access service providers on the availability and quality of broadband service. Under new reporting requirements, mobile broadband service providers must submit network coverage maps (voice, 3G, 4G LTE, and 5G-NR) based on standardized requirements, as well as supplemental data about how the maps were generated, to support their broadband coverage claims during bi-annual filing windows. Similarly, fixed wireless broadband service providers must submit broadband coverage data in the form of either propagation maps and model details or a list of addresses or locations; if the provider submits coverage maps), it must provide additional information with its maps and model details. In addition, the FCC has established processes to validate the accuracy of coverage data collected from fixed and mobile wireless broadband service providers. As part of the mobile challenge process, mobile wireless service providers that choose to rebut a challenge must do so by submitting on-the-ground (OTG) speed-test data or infrastructure data (or both), as well as potentially other data, to support their network coverage maps. Separate from the mobile challenge process, consumers and third parties may submit fixed and mobile crowdsourced data to the Commission; staff will review these data along with other relevant data to determine whether there is a credible basis to initiate a verification inquiry. Areas identified from crowdsourced data using this methodology would be subject to a verification inquiry consistent with the Commission’s verification processes. The Commission may also conduct audits, which may consist of selecting areas of a provider’s coverage for independent review, which, in the mobile context, may include drive testing to be conducted by the FCC. See Broadband Data Collection (BDC) Mobile Technical Requirements Order, DA 22-241, Mar 9, 2022, for additional information. (https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-releases-bdc-mobile-technical-requirements-order).

To support implementation of the BDA requirements, the Commission requires wireless engineering, analytical, and consulting advisory support services for ongoing review and analysis of data submitted by providers1 (including link budgets, propagation models, network monitoring results, infrastructure data, drive testing, etc.), public and anonymized crowdsourced data from various entities and stakeholders, and other related data in support of the BDC challenge and

1 The data required from, and submitted by, providers include certain contact information, which the Commission considers to be Personally Identifiable Information (PII), subject to applicable Federal laws and requirements.

Because these data will be shared with the support contractor, the contractor is responsible for maintaining and processing such data in a manner consistent with Federal laws and requirements.

verification processes.2 Support of these tasks may require engagement with fixed wireless and mobile wireless service providers and other stakeholders to clarify, analyze, and validate all required data and reporting. Through this support, the FCC is seeking to:

Enhance the FCC’s ability to accurately assess and verify coverage maps and related supporting data submitted by wireless broadband service providers as part of the BDC challenge, verification, and crowdsourcing processes;

Obtain support for review of biannual coverage maps and supporting data (including but not limited to, infrastructure data, link budgets, fixed wireless and mobile wireless service providers’ propagation models, and clutter data) including engagement, as necessary, with fixed wireless and mobile wireless service providers for clarification of supporting data;

Produce and analyze outputs of the FCC’s Propagation Modeling Tool (PMT) under different conditions based on the fixed wireless and mobile wireless service providers’ supporting data (e.g., traffic load, link budget, infrastructure) that can be transmitted to the FCC’s BDC System for comparison with submitted coverage maps or can be exported as part of the analysis;

Review and evaluate the results produced by the BDC System based on the wireless providers’ supporting OTG speed-test data;

Build and review plans for the FCC’s field surveys (e.g., OTG speed tests) related to audits of coverage maps and evaluate the results of the OTG analysis produced by the BDC system;

Create documentation to support the assessment of the coverage maps that can be shared within FCC, with challengers, and/or with service providers;

Communicate and engage with service providers as necessary regarding the assessment of coverage maps and link budgets, and resolve any potential issues; and

Establish and continuously improve BDC propagation modeling, challenge, verification, crowdsourcing, and audit processes to effectively and efficiently meet BDA requirements.

2 Challenge and crowdsource data include data elements that are, or could reveal, PII. The FCC will disclose to the contractor—or limit the contractor’s access to—only challenge and crowdsourced data elements that are anonymized or otherwise have been made public, the latter of which, under the BDC Third Report and Order, include the location that is the subject of a challenge. Establishing the Digital Opportunity Data Collection;

Modernizing the FCC Form 477 Data Program, WC Docket Nos. 11-10 and 19-195, Third Report and Order, 36 FCC Rcd 1126, 1174, para. 125 (2021). The FCC will not disclose to the contractor—or provide the contractor access to—any other challenge or crowdsource data elements that include or could reveal PII, such as contact_name, contact_email, contact_phone, server_timestamp, server_source_ip_address, server_source_port, device_imei, device_id.

In support of the above objectives, capable vendors should also possess deep expertise in a range of relevant analytical tools and techniques including, but not limited to:

Use of leading wireless network design propagation modeling software (e.g., Forsk Atoll/Naos, Infovista Planet, CelPlan CelPlanner, etc.), tools and techniques, and assessment of propagation model outputs;

Use of data analytics and visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Microsoft Excel, Power BI) to review and manage the data submitted from service providers and other sources and effectively visualize analytical results to support FCC decision making;

Use of statistical analysis tools (e.g., SAS, SPSS, R, RDBMS tools such as PostGreSQL) to perform statistical analysis and derive metrics from data submitted from service providers; and

Using GIS tools (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, PostGIS) to perform spatial interpolation analysis techniques (e.g., Kriging) using OTG data.

For additional information on BDA data requirements please refer to the following additional resources:

The Broadband Data Collection Help Center - https://help.bdc.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

Data Specifications for Biannual Submission of Subscription, Availability, and Supporting Data, August 2022 - https://us-fcc.app.box.com/v/bdc-availability-spec

Data Specifications for Provider Infrastructure Data in the Mobile Challenge and Mobile Verification Processes, March 2022 - https://us-fcc.app.box.com/v/bdc-infrastructure-spec

Data Specifications for Mobile Speed Test Data, September 2022 - https://us-fcc.app.box.com/v/bdc-mobile-speedtest-spec

Mobile Broadband Supporting Data - https://help.bdc.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/5342522028059-Mobile-Broadband-Supporting-Data

Fixed Wireless Broadband Supporting Data - https://help.bdc.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/5291309996699-Fixed-Wireless-Broadband-Supporting-Data