Mobile Coverage Restoration – How to Submit Infrastructure Data

Overview

Coverage Restoration is the process by which you can demonstrate that service is now available from your company in places where it appears to be unavailable on the National Broadband Map (NBM) because of the outcome of an availability challenge, verification, or audit. 

This article provides some background on how the process works, followed by a step-by-step guide that explains how to provide a response and submit your supporting infrastructure data in the BDC system.

Background

The Importance of Timing

There are two dimensions to this process that are particularly important.  The first is time.  If you’re reading this, you’ve likely submitted mobile broadband coverage in the BDC and had some area of that coverage removed by a challenge, verification or audit.  The coverage restoration process does not erase the past.  Rather, a successful submission essentially tells the BDC system that it no longer needs to redact availability in the area in question.  Let’s say, for example, that a portion of the coverage you submitted as of June 2024 was removed due to a failed verification. When you certified your December 2025 submission, a restoration request was created for that area. If you respond to the request—and the FCC accepts—coverage will be restored in that area for your December 2025 filing and in future filings in which your data show the area to be covered.

This process is effective beginning with filings of data as of December 31, 2025.  Filers have the opportunity to respond (by uploading responses and certifying) to restoration requests generated for the December 31, 2025 filing round until the opening of the June 30, 2026 filing window.  Once the next filing window has opened, it will no longer be possible to respond to December 2026 restoration requests, and thus there is no path to restoration of coverage as of December 2026 after that date.

For data as of June 30, 2026 and beyond, restoration requests will be generated in the BDC system when the filing is submitted.  Filers will then have until the opening of the next filing window to respond.

Service Characteristics Matter

The other dimension is the type of service.  For this process, think of mobile broadband services as being logically ranked from lowest to highest in quality, where availability of the highest-quality service in an area implies that lower-quality service is also available (within a particular technology).  Availability of an “in-vehicle mobile and outdoor stationary” service in a hexagon implies availability of outdoor stationary service in that hexagon.  Similarly, availability of 5G-NR outdoor stationary service at 35/3 Mbps in a particular hexagon implies that 5G-NR outdoor stationary service at 7/1 is also available in the hexagon.  The corollary is that failure of a verification at 7/1 Mbps in an area where you claimed 35/3 Mbps availability implies failure at 35/3 Mbps.  If the data failed the verification for lower-quality service, then higher-quality service in that same area is also suspect. 

In practice this means that if your company submitted 5G-NR outdoor stationary availability at 35/3 Mbps in a hexagon and subsequently failed a verification at 7/1 Mbps, two coverage restoration “requests” are created in the system for that hexagon: one for 35/3 Mbps and one for 7/1 Mbps. 

The idea is to offer you options.  One option is to respond only to the 7/1 Mbps failure and show in your response that such service is now available.  The other option is to respond that 35/3 Mbps service is available.  Here, since two coverage restoration requests were created, you must respond to both.  Specifically, to restore coverage at 35/3 Mbps in this example, you will need to respond that both (a) 7/1 Mbps service is available AND (b) 35/3 Mbps service is available. 

Getting Started

Coverage Restoration requires:

1. Creating and Submitting a Response
2. Submitting Response Data, including Infrastructure Data and Supporting Documents
3. Passing Final Data Checks, and
4. Certification

Create and Submit a Response

The first step is to dive into the Coverage Restoration workflow.  Click Coverage Restoration on the Mobile Data Requests card. This link will only exist if a Coverage Restoration request exists for your FRN.

This link will take you to the Coverage Restoration overview where you will see a Summary and can download two important files:

• Pending Hexagon IDs - Hexagon IDs that have not been included in a Coverage Restoration Response
• Responded Hexagon IDs - Hexagon IDs included in a Coverage Restoration Response that’s already been submitted.

Below the Summary, you’ll see the Provider Response table. You may respond to all Pending Hexagons at once, or divide them across multiple submissions.

Clicking Create New will pop up the Create Response modal.  Users must enter a Response Name, then click Create.  In this example, the name of our response is “Coverage Restoration Response 1.”

After you click Create, the Response Name will be added to the Provider Response table.

The Provider Response table shows the following details about each response.  You’ll need to return to this page to track the progress of your Responses.

• Response Name – Your name for the response
• Reference ID - Reference ID of the response (the system creates this)
• Date Created - Date the response was created
• Total Response Records - The count of records within the response (this will be zero until you’ve uploaded your coverage restoration details file and infrastructure data, and certified the response).
• Response Status - The status of the response:
  • Pending - The response has not yet been certified
  • Certified - The response has been certified
  • Not Submitted - The response was created, but was not certified prior to the next biannual filing window open date
• Adjudication Status - The adjudication status from the FCC:
  • Verified - The FCC has accepted all hexagons within the submission. Coverage for these hexagons will be restored on the National Broadband Map.
  • Failed - The FCC has rejected all hexagons within the submission. Coverage for these hexagons will not be restored on the National Broadband Map.
  • Partially Verified - There is a mix of accepted and rejected hexagons in your submission. Verified hexagons will be restored on the National Broadband Map, while Failed hexagons will not be restored on the National Broadband Map.

What Now?  For a new Response like this one, the next step is to click Submit Response which will allow you to provide the necessary infrastructure and supporting information on the Coverage Restoration Details page. 

As an aside, note that as you work through these processes and develop multiple Responses that are in different states of processing, other actions will become available.

• Submit Response - Provide infrastructure data for your Response (This is the only option when a new response has just been initiated!)
• View Response - View previously submitted data for this Response. (This option will only appear once a response has been certified).
• Decertify - Decertify a previously certified Response.  This will allow you to modify response data.
• Delete - Clicking the trashcan will delete your submission. The trashcan will not be visible if your submission is certified, or if your response has been adjudicated by the FCC.

Submitting Infrastructure and Supporting Data

Coverage Restoration Details

Submit Response (or View Response) will take you to the Coverage Restoration Details page. This is where you’ll submit the Infrastructure Data and Supporting Documents.  A badge in the top right corner will indicate the status for your submission, which will either be In Progress or Response Certified.

To get started on the process of submitting infrastructure and supporting documentation, for a newly initiated Response, click Submit Response Data.  Alternatively, click Search to see the hexagon IDs that have been already been submitted within the response.

Response Data

In the Response Data section, you can upload a file defining the Hexagon IDs you wish to restore, the characteristics of the service available in the Hexagon, and the associated Restoration Code.  This Restoration Code Response file must be formatted according to the upload specification in Section 3.1 of the Coverage Restoration Data Specifications.  Here’s how a correctly formatted file might appear:

Be careful when formatting the Restoration Code Response file.  As always, the system won’t accept the file if it doesn’t conform to the upload specification.  The tricky part in this case is that you must respond to all the coverage restoration requests you wish to restore, and therefore your Restoration Code Response file must contain a record for each coverage restoration request you wish to restore.  The table below shows how the BDC system creates restoration requests.

To begin submitting your Response Data, click the blue Upload button within the Restoration Code Response Data table. Depending on the technologies included within this file, you may be prompted to upload Infrastructure Data. 

Once a valid Restoration Code Response file is uploaded, the Final Data Checks card and Infrastructure Data table will be displayed.  You’ll need to upload infrastructure data for each of the technologies included in your Restoration Code Response data file before advancing to the next step. 

The Infrastructure Data files required for each technology are typically (a) Base Station Location and Height; (b) Base Station Carriers; (c) Base Station Loading; and (d) Link Budget Parameters.  See Section 1 of the Data Specifications for Provider Infrastructure Data for all the details.

To upload optional Supporting Documents, click the blue Upload button with the Documents table.

Final Data Checks

If Final Data Checks are included within your response, they must be completed to certify your data. To begin the Final Data Checks process, click the blue “Run Final Data Checks” button.

Once the Final Data Checks have finished running, any concerns about your submission will be displayed within the table. You will be required to respond to each Final Data Check shown.  Click the Edit button to enter an Explanation. Once an Explanation is entered, the Status will be updated to Complete. 

Hint:  Providing a comprehensive and detailed Explanation for each Final Data Check could prevent additional questions from the FCC.

Final Data Checks highlighted in red are hard-stops.  You will have to rectify the data abnormality, usually by removing and replacing previously uploaded information, before you’re able to proceed to Certify Data.

Certification

Once all Final Data Checks have a status of Complete, the Certify Data card will be unlocked. To certify this response, click the blue Certify button within the Response Data table and a Certify Data modal will display.

In Certify Data modal, select a Contact from the menu of verified Contacts.  Once all required information is complete, click the green Certify Data button to certify the response.

What’s Next?

Your submission should appear on the Restoration Overview page with a Response Status of Certified.  The FCC will review your submission and adjudicate the locations you’ve included within that coverage restoration request.

After the FCC completes its review of the submission and comes to a decision, the Restoration Adjudication column will be updated.  Check the Coverage Restoration Details page for updates.  Clicking on the value in the Restoration Adjudication column will allow you to see more details about the adjudication.

References

Specifications for Provider Infrastructure Data

Specifications for Coverage Restoration Data

Restoration Code Response File Template - Mobile

BDC System User Guide