As part of the automated validations that are run against submitted challenges to the FCC’s Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, each challenger-submitted address is standardized and compared against the addresses currently used by existing Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) to ensure there are no duplicate addresses.
If you do find the address you plan to include with your challenge is already included as a primary address in the Fabric, you should file a Type 2 category code (address change) challenge to correct the address at the location already using that address in the Fabric. If the address you plan to include with your challenge is a secondary address assigned to an existing active Fabric location, you can file a Type 8 category code (remove secondary address) challenge to remove the address. You must include address correction and removal challenges in the same bulk submission as challenges where you plan to associate the address with a different location.
When processing challenges, if there is a conflict with an address associated with an existing active BSL, we look to see whether the challenger separately included a Type 2 category code (address change) challenge for the conflicting location in their bulk submission. If the Type 2 challenge is accepted, it removes the conflict with the address for a Type 1 category code (missing location) challenge and the Type 1 challenge that contained the duplicative address moves forward for additional review.
CASS Address Standardization
All challenges to add a missing location (Type 1) or change the address for an existing location (Type 2 or Type 7) that include challenger-supplied address information will have the provided address validated and standardized using the United States Postal Service (USPS) Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) system. When submitting challenges that include an address it may be helpful to check the address you are providing using a CASS-certified address standardization tool.
If during the CASS standardization process, a challenger-supplied address for a Type 2 or Type 7 challenge conflicts with an existing address for an active location in the Fabric, the challenge will be rejected (e.g., “123 MAIN ST BLDG 2” might get standardized as “123 MAIN ST” via the CASS system; if there already is a “123 MAIN ST” for an existing BSL, this would cause a conflict).
CASS standardization will also provide the USPS-standardized city. A challenge with a non-standard city that duplicates the address for an existing location in the Fabric after city standardization will also cause an address conflict.
If you find that the CASS standardization process has modified the address of the BSL for which you are submitting a challenge such that the modified address conflicts with an existing BSL, but where you believe both the challenger-submitted address and the modified address for the existing BSL are correct (e.g., if a challenge to add a BSL with an address of “123A MAIN ST” is standardized as “123 MAIN ST” but the challenger believes both “123A MAIN ST” and “123 MAIN ST” are valid addresses for two different locations), there are two possible solutions to resolve the conflict:
- If both the challenger-submitted address and CASS-standardized address refer to two different but related locations (e.g., two units in a duplex; or a primary residence and an Accessory Dwelling Unit), you can file a Type 3 category code (unit count change) challenge to correct the unit count of the existing BSL to reflect both of the units.
- In the uncommon scenario where the challenger-submitted address and CASS-standardized address refer to completely distinct locations (e.g., two separate mobile homes where mail is not delivered to the challenger-submitted address because the resident exclusively uses a P.O. Box), you may modify a Type 1 category code challenge to specify that there is no USPS-deliverable street address associated with the new BSL (bsl_lacks_address_flag value of “1”).
Please note: if the location has a USPS-deliverable street address but for some reason this address is not recognized as valid in the CASS standardization process, please reach out to Get Help from BDC Help Center.
Further reading and references