Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) announced that, after her successful push, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) updated its National Broadband Map to more accurately reflect Nevada’s current broadband needs, which is critical for the allocation of funding for high-speed internet from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $42 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. A previous, deeply flawed map misrepresented the high-speed internet coverage in Nevada and would have caused the state to lose out on potentially millions of dollars in BEAD funding. The new version of this map identifies nearly 27,000 new broadband serviceable locations across Nevada, in addition to nearly 7,000 new locations without access to high-speed service that were not included in the previous version.
“While helping write the broadband section of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, I made sure that states like Nevada would be able to access the funding and resources necessary to connect more households to high-speed internet,” said Senator Rosen. “I’m proud to announce that thanks to my efforts, the updated version of the FCC broadband map accurately identifies additional unserved locations across Nevada, which will help bring more federal infrastructure funding to connect them to high-speed internet. I’ll continue working with the Department of Commerce to ensure Nevada gets its share of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding in June to get Nevadans access to high-speed internet.”
Senator Rosen has led the fight to fix the deeply-flawed FCC Broadband Map and increase Nevadans’ access to high-speed internet. Earlier this year, Senator Rosen sent a letter to the FCC urging them to fix the deeply flawed broadband map to ensure Nevada receives its fair share of federal funding. Last year, Senator Rosen led a bipartisan letter to the FCC Chairwoman pushing the agency to fix these inaccurate broadband maps. During a Senate hearing, Senator Rosen even raised the alarm on this flawed broadband mapping and called for immediate improvements to protect broadband investments in rural Nevada.