INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER SERVICE TERRITORY DATA SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has released guidelines for the Virginia Broadband Availability Map - Internet Service Provider Service Territory Data Submission Process. Service territory data will be due from internet service providers by March 8, 2024. DHCD will host a submission webinar on how to submit service territory data into the portal on February 16th from 1-2PM. A registration link will be provided via email. The submission portal for service territory data will open on or before February 5, 2024. Please email broadband@dhcd.virginia.gov with any questions.
Please note the guidelines establish that internet service providers submit the same data, in substance and in form, as submitted to the Federal Communications Commission under its Broadband Data Collection Program by their March 1, 2024 submission deadline for service territory data reflecting service availability on December 31, 2023.
Broadband Availability Map
Section P of Item 115 of Chapter 2, 2022 Acts of Assembly, 2022 Special Session I, commonly known as the Budget Bill, directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a statewide broadband availability map indicating broadband coverage, including maximum broadband speeds available in service territories in the Commonwealth. As directed in the Budget Bill, all broadband service providers shall be required to submit updated service territory data to the Department annually, containing the locations to which they provide broadband service. DHCD is in the process of creating this map and expects the map will be available in Spring 2022.
Locations Unserved by Broadband
Section P of Item 115 of Chapter 2, 2022 Acts of Assembly, 2022 Special Session I, commonly known as the Budget Bill, establishes that the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) may publish only anonymized versions of the map, showing locations served and unserved by broadband without reference to any specific provider. For the purposes of this statewide broadband map, the definition of 'broadband' means internet access at speeds equal to or greater than the broadband internet speed benchmark set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC's current definition of broadband, set in February 2015, establishes the speed threshold at which internet service is considered broadband at 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. In accordance with this reference and definition, DHCD has released the shapefile below which provides those locations unserved by broadband at this speed threshold.
