A page from the Cox website is displayed on a laptop screen. The internet and cable service provider has filed a lawsuit against the state’s Commerce Corporation for the broadband map intended to map distribution of federal funds. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
A lawsuit against the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation filed by one of the state’s largest cable and internet providers has drawn a stern rebuke from state officials who say the complaint is “misleading and unsupported by facts.”
Cox Communications supplies internet, cable TV and phone service to customers in Rhode Island and 18 other states. But the lawsuit filed in Rhode Island Superior Court in Providence on Monday accuses the state of mismanaging $108 million in federal funds for broadband infrastructure designated for underserved areas from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD).
“Let’s be clear about what’s behind Cox’s lawsuit: It is an attempt to prevent the investment of $108.7 million in broadband infrastructure in Rhode Island, likely because it realizes that some, or even all, of that money may be awarded through a competitive process to other internet service providers,” Matthew Touchette, a spokesperson for the quasi-public Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, wrote in a news release Tuesday morning.
Rhode Island’s official broadband map lists areas as served, underserved or unserved, with the lowest rung of that classification hindered by broadband service slower than 25 megabits per second for downloads and 3 megabits per second for uploads. Those were the minimum benchmark numbers approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015, but the commission updated its broadband specs in March, raising the bar to 100 megabits per second for downloads and 20 megabits per second for uploads.
The broadband map is where Cox claims the Commerce Corporation gets it wrong in its infrastructure plans, by using “flawed” and “manipulated” data to plot internet access across the state. The state’s data — which Cox claims is not being made public — could result in “redundant” investments for connectivity in already well-served areas “while ignoring residents truly in need of better broadband service and financial assistance to pay for it,” Cox wrote in a press release Monday.
“Rhode Island is one of the most connected states in the United States for existing high-speed broadband internet infrastructure,” the lawsuit states. Cox argues that “affluent areas of Rhode Island like the Breakers Mansion in Newport and affluent areas of Westerly” will benefit under Commerce’s broadband maps.
“Approximately 30,000 locations…currently served by Cox, all of which have 1000 Mbps/35 Mbps available and many of which have 2000 Mbps/100 Mbps available, are incorrectly and improperly reclassified as ‘underserved,’” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit says Cox attempted to request public records regarding the map’s underlying data, methodology and reclassifications of certain areas as underserved. Per the lawsuit, Cox believes the Commerce Corporation “layered” speed test data from Ookla over an existing FCC map.
Then Commerce requested a $52,462 fee for the labor involved in compiling (and redacting portions of) the 206,459 pages covered by Cox’s request under Rhode Island’s public records law.
“It is estimated that the total length of time required to comply with your request is approximately 3,498.50 hours, of which approximately 58.5 hours will be devoted to document retrieval and approximately 3,440 hours will be committed to reviewing documents for redaction purposes,” Commerce replied, according to the lawsuit.
President Joe Biden authorized the $42 billion BEAD program in 2021 as a means of addressing internet access issues in rural and low-income areas, which have traditionally been underserved when it comes to high-speed internet connectivity. Nonprofit ChangeLabs Solutions estimated in 2023 that, nationally, 61.9% of rural homes have cable, fiber optic or DSL internet (collectively referred to as broadband), compared to 77.6% of non-rural households. The BEAD program was designed to install the physical structures needed to deliver broadband to underserved areas.
The Connect RI broadband map crafted by the Commerce Corporation provides the landscape of the Cox lawsuit, with the company alleging that its data is suspect. On the screencap shown here, red represents unserved areas, yellow is underserved and green areas are served. (Screencap)
Transparency criticized by both sides
Commerce argues that Cox refused to participate in a “months-long public planning process” to determine how Rhode Island’s BEAD funds would be allocated nor did the company submit public comments or raise concerns about the infrastructure plans — even at “public Broadband Advisory Council meetings (where they are the sole provider represented),” Touchette wrote.
“Our planning process was open and participatory, and Cox did not participate,” the news release read.
Bill Fischer, a spokesperson for Cox Communications, said in an email Tuesday that Commerce’s response was “certainly disappointing, but unfortunately not surprising.”
“For over a year Cox has presented facts and evidence as to why Commerce’s broadband plan is flawed and these arguments have been ignored at every turn,” Fischer wrote. “We have shared our mapping data with Commerce – in fact we have a data sharing agreement with Commerce. To state today that this information hasn’t been conveyed is not factual.”
Fischer also said that Cox officials have met with Commerce Secretary Liz Tanner, and that Cox’s trade association, the New England Connectivity and Telecommunications Association, sent comments to the state during the BEAD drafting process in late 2023.
“To herald this process as being transparent is an interesting argument as Commerce asked for public comment about their challenge process and then adopted a process no one had seen after the public comment deadline had expired,” Fischer wrote.
Commerce also took aim at Cox’s understanding of the federal subsidies, which they claim cannot be used to directly credit customers’ bills but is instead meant for improving physical infrastructure to increase broadband coverage.
“To suggest that these funds can only be used for infrastructure buildout is simply not accurate,” Fischer said. “The approved uses are literally sitting on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s website.”
“Contrary to Cox’s assertions, parts of the state are indeed unserved or underserved, including areas that Cox claims are affluent,” Touchette wrote. “Whether an area is affluent or not has no bearing on the type of broadband service that is —or is not—available in that area.”
Cox is one of few internet providers left in the Ocean State, covering a large portion of Rhode Island unlike smaller providers. Local competitors are mostly gone, like the East Bay’s now-defunct Full Channel, which was sold to national i3 Broadband in 2019. Other national companies like Verizon and Earthlink continue to offer broadband internet in Rhode Island.
But large companies do not have a total monopoly on the state’s connectivity: After dealing with spotty and expensive service for years, Block Island started the first municipal broadband service in Rhode Island in 2023.
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