FAQs

No. Eligible areas and eligible census blocks – and associated shapefiles – are set at the start of a program and remain fixed throughout the duration of the fund. This means that existing funds with eligible areas established with 2010 census block data still rely on 2010 census data.

In addition, changes in census geographies do not change carrier deployment obligations. The FCC will only adjust eligible areas and deployment obligations using specific adjustment processes such as the Eligible Location Adjustment Process (ELAP) for CAF II Auction carriers and Broadband Data Collection adjustments for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).

If an actual postal address is unavailable, carriers must supply an identifying description of the location, such as a road mile marker or an intersection.

Yes. The carrier should report 10 in the data field for number of units where service is available. In this example, the carrier can count 10 locations towards its deployment milestone obligation.

A carrier should report and receives credit for the house regardless of whether the residence subscribes to the service. The carrier can count a business run out of a house as a separate unit  if there are separate facilities (drop/line), separate equipment (e.g., modem) and a separate subscription (with a separate bill) showing that the carrier is providing at least the minimum required speeds. See DA-16- 1363 WCB Guidance on Location Reporting for Carriers Receiving CAF Support.

A carrier should report and receives credit for the house regardless of whether the residence subscribes to the service. The carrier can count a separate connection to a barn, shed or other structure on a property if there are separate facilities (drop/line), separate equipment (e.g., modem) and a separate subscription (with a separate bill) showing that the carrier is providing at least the minimum required speeds at that structure. The carrier should report each structure served as a separate location – with separate latitude and longitude coordinates – in the HUBB. See DA-16- 1363 WCB Guidance on Location Reporting for Carriers Receiving CAF Support for information about which structures are eligible for CAF support and can count toward deployment obligations.

Whenever possible, location coordinates should represent the structure being served and should be collected at some point inside the structure’s footprint. These are called “rooftop” coordinates. Ideally, carriers should gather coordinates at a spot unambiguously associated with the structure, such as the network connection point or the front door. At a minimum, coordinates should represent a point on the correct property or parcel of land where service is being delivered. Carriers should try to collect coordinates as close as possible to the structure being served, and should not submit coordinates at the network node or pedestal used to serve a location. For guidance on how to collect accurate geolocation coordinates, please see: Geolocation Methods: A guide to successfully collecting broadband deployment data.

Asking carriers to report latitude/longitude coordinates to six decimal places helps ensure that the HUBB portal will not reject separate locations as duplicates. That’s because latitude/longitude coordinates reported to six decimal places represent a spatial resolution of approximately four inches in the real world. There is little risk of actual deployment to two separate locations that are less than four inches apart.

Yes. The HUBB provides a 7.6-meter buffer. This buffer reflects the spatial accuracy of the census block boundaries and U.S. Census Bureau TIGER database, which has a published map accuracy for well-defined points (such as street intersections) of 7.6 meters at the 90 percent confidence level. This means that if 10 random test points from the TIGER database are compared with ‘‘ground truth’’ – that is, if 10 random points from the database are compared with independently collected GPS coordinates – difference would be less than 7.6 meters in any direction for at least nine of the test points. The buffer also allows USAC to determine if latitude/longitude coordinates filed with the system fall within 7.6 meters of the eligible area boundaries, and will accept them even if they are outside of the eligible area but within 7.6 meters of the boundary.

There are many GPS applications, including smart phone applications, on the market. Some are free and some have a modest price tag. USAC does not recommend any particular GPS applications, but encourages carriers to evaluate several options to find one that meets their needs. Features to look for include the ability to: collect GPS data offline (when out of range of cell coverage), store and transmit GPS coordinates, and add a brief description or ID to GPS coordinates. USAC also does not recommend any particular mapping or geocoding applications, other than the state geocoders that a number of states have created using address points as reference data. For a list of currently-known state geocoders, please see: Geolocation Methods: A guide to successfully collecting broadband deployment data.