Experts Urge Data Oversight ‘Down to Jitter and Latency’ in Broadband Reporting

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 30 , 2025 — It’s still an issue: There are gaps in the broadband maps.

Mapping specialists and anchor institution officials said the nation’s broadband maps still fail to show how reliably families can get online, and that schools, libraries, and data firms are helping to close the gap.

The session, here at the AnchorNets 2025 Conference, examined how federal broadband programs such as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment and E-Rate depended on precise, verifiable data. Participants said the Federal Communications Commission’s new location-based maps marked progress over the older census-block system but remained incomplete without granular data from anchor institutions.