A number of areas in Butler County were included among about 35,000 locations statewide submitted as part of a bulk challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map, the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority announced Friday.

This action will prompt the FCC to work directly with internet service providers to verify the information submitted.

The announcement by Brandon Carson, the authority’s executive director, came in just under the wire, as the deadline to submit challenges was Friday.

“Submitting these challenges to the FCC is the next step in the federal funding allocation process,” Carson said. “Submitting these inaccuracies will help ensure Pennsylvania receives adequate federal funding for high-speed internet access to unserved and underserved areas of the commonwealth.”

A representative of the state Department of Community and Economic Development confirmed locations in Butler County were included in the bulk challenge.

Members of the public were encouraged to access the FCC’s map and submit a challenge if their internet connectivity did not fit the description provided before the Friday deadline.

“It was a short turnaround, maybe a month and a half,” Butler County Commissioner and chairman of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Leslie Osche said.

The authority will continue to partner with internet service providers and local communities to verify and update information to ensure that the FCC’s map has the most up-to-date information for Pennsylvania, Carson said, adding that the data will help to inform investments in broadband infrastructure across the commonwealth.

The map released by the FCC shows that most of Butler County has access to fixed broadband.

The digital map allows residents to type in their addresses and see how much of the area surrounding them can be accessed with mobile or fixed broadband. Outside of an area near Moraine State Park, where no data was available, the map shows fixed broadband was available across the county with 80% to 100% accessibility.

The map also shows that mobile broadband is 100% accessible to most places in Butler County.

Osche said the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, or SPC, which works to keep the region connected and moving forward for the continued growth of southwestern Pennsylvania, conducted an internet coverage study that included Butler County.

“I’ve not seen who’s in the bulk challenge, but we issued a challenge to the Worth Township maps,” she said about the SPC.

Worth Township recently requested American Rescue Plan Funds from county commissioners for use related to broadband access. The funding was not included among the $11.7 million awarded to a number of municipalities in Butler County.

Worth Township supervisor Fred Brezel said communities such as his depend on grant funding for help with broadband as their budgets can’t fund the cost of installation.

Upon meeting with Armstrong Utilities, township supervisors were informed that broadband instillation would cost nearly $2 million, Brezel said.

Andy Waple, deputy executive director of the SPC, said the organization commissioned a study of internet coverage be done in Butler County and the surrounding region. Once speed and coverage data was collected, it was submitted to the Broadband Authority as part of its bulk challenge.

“We made recommendation with 12 goals in mind as to how the region could be better connected,” he said. “We worked closely with the Broadband Authority … some of our data was used to develop the mapping.”

Gov. Tom Wolf announced in December that the state had received $6.6 million in federal funds to close the digital divide and make broadband accessible for all residents of the state.

According to Waple, a statewide challenge ensures that the federal broadband funds will make it to Butler County and surrounding areas.

“What the challenge is doing is making an argument that Pennsylvania should receive as much of that as we can,” he said.

He added that discrepancies in the FCC map could be connected to how data was acquired.

“If you look at census blocks, in a rural area, one house may have high-speed accessibility, that shows that block as served or well-served. That’s how these things could be overstated. It shows the whole area as covered, and it may not be,” he said.

“Pennsylvania needed to make that challenge because we’re competing with 49 other states,” Osche said. “If we hadn’t challenged, there wouldn’t be as much broadband funding to locations it needs to get to. In some places, there’s service on one side of the street and not the other.”

Osche said a broadband summit will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 16, at the Regional Learning Alliance, 850 Cranberry Woods Drive, Cranberry Township. This will allow municipalities, stakeholders and residents to talk about the SPC’s report and it’s plan for potential broadband projects in Butler County. Reservations for the summit can be made at spcregion.org.

This article was updated to reflect that the summit is from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A previous version of this story said it was at 3:30 p.m.