Cox Sues to Block Rhode Island's BEAD Map

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2024 – Cox Communications asked judges Monday to block Rhode Island from going ahead with its plan for more than $100 million in broadband expansion grants. 

Cox v. Rhode Island Complaint

Plaintiff CoxCom, LLC d/b/a Cox Communications (“Cox”) seeks a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief that prohibits the Defendant Rhode Island Commerce Corporation (“Commerce Corporation”) from using flawed internet speed data that the Commerce Corporation refuses to make public to build taxpayer-subsidized and duplicative high-speed broadband internet in affluent areas of Rhode Island like the Breakers Mansion in Newport and affluent areas of Westerly. Rather than using taxpayer funds to ensure high-speed access to all Rhode Islanders – including low-income Rhode Islanders in need – the Commerce Corporation has devised a program that will benefit wealthy parts of the State already served with high-speed internet in contravention of the program that it purports to implement. It does so while keeping secret its own data, and refusing to consider Cox’s speed data showing the opposite.

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In preparation for implementing its $108 million portion of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, Rhode Island was required to solicit challenges to government broadband coverage data. Cox asked Rhode Island Superior Court judges to invalidate the state’s map – which is still being ironed out – arguing the company wasn’t given the chance to prove it served certain households.

Using the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband map as a base, the state used speed test data to mark some locations as BEAD-eligible before taking challenges, something allowed by program rules. That led to about 30,000 locations in Cox’s footprint being marked as underserved, meaning they receive speeds slow enough to be eligible for new BEAD-funded infrastructure.