Over 7 million locations across the United States lack access to high-speed internet service but that number is dwindling, according to new maps released by the FCC.

The digital divide remains significant but continues to narrow, according to Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC chair, who announced the release of the maps in a Nov. 17 FCC blog post on the commission’s website.

The updated broadband map releases have become routine for the FCC in November, according to Rosenworcel, who said the latest map version continues to build on newly acquired and refined data.

She said “robust participation” in the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program’s challenge process, which is playing out state-by-state, has played a valuable role in correcting map data.

She said data from 4.8 million challenges to provider-reported availability and 1.5 million location challenges, along with results of several FCC-initiated mobile coverage audits, has been incorporated in the new map.

Rosenworcel also wrote that the fluctuations of data in the FCC’s National Broadband Map are getting smaller.

“The number of broadband serviceable locations on the current Map is up to 115 million, an increase of 800,000 since May 2023,” she wrote. “Looking ahead, we expect that any changes in the number of locations will overwhelmingly reflect on-the-ground changes such as the construction of new housing.”

Rosenworcel wrote that the number of locations without broadband availability has decreased because broadband buildouts are continuing across the nation.

“Providers are connecting more locations to high-speed internet services thanks to the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and Connect America Fund, in addition to other federal, state and privately funded programs and projects,” she stated in the blog post. “And that’s before the deployments funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law kick-in.”