Search Broadband Providers
fcc_search_providersSearches for ISPs by holding company name, filtered by state and technology type. Returns a deduplicated list of matching providers with hoconum identifiers for follow-up calls to fcc_get_provider. Answers "which ISPs serve Washington with fiber?" and "find all Comcast entities." Geographic filtering is state-level; sub-state granularity requires cross-referencing block data. Against the live FCC API the search reads a bounded window of deployment rows to find which holding companies match, so when scanTruncated comes back true the providers are a sample of the matches rather than every one of them and no true match count is available; a narrower filter raises the share of matches the sample surfaces but cannot make it complete, and only a deployment running the local Form 477 mirror returns every match. The sample is of which companies come back — every company that does carries its complete national footprint, since statesServed and techCodes are resolved per company rather than read off the window, at the cost of one lookup per provider returned. Data is from FCC Form 477 (as of June 2021).
Tool call template
This tool declares no required parameters. Add optional parameters from the input schema as needed.
{
"id": 1,
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"arguments": {},
"name": "fcc_search_providers"
}
}Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| limit | No | Maximum number of distinct providers to return. | |
| state | No | 2-letter state abbreviation (e.g., "WA") to limit results to providers serving that state. Matches individual deployment filings, so every filter given must hold on one filing together — a provider is returned for state="WA" with tech_filter=["50"] only if it filed fiber in Washington, not if it filed fiber elsewhere and something else in Washington. | |
| offset | No | Number of sorted distinct providers to skip. Live continuation covers the sampled set only; samples may differ between calls. | |
| name_search | No | Partial holding company name to search (case-insensitive). e.g., "Comcast", "T-Mobile", "Frontier". Omit to list all providers in a state. | |
| tech_filter | No | Technology codes to filter, from the complete Form 477 taxonomy: 0=All other, 10=Asymmetric xDSL, 11=ADSL2, 12=VDSL, 20=Symmetric xDSL, 30=Other copper wireline, 40=Cable modem, 41=Cable modem DOCSIS 1/1.1/2.0, 42=Cable modem DOCSIS 3.0, 43=Cable modem DOCSIS 3.1, 50=Fiber to the end user, 60=Satellite, 70=Terrestrial fixed wireless, 90=Electric power line. Omit for all technologies. Matches individual deployment filings like state does, so pairing this with name_search narrows to filings made under the matched name — a holding company that files some technologies under an acquired brand name can come back empty here while its techCodes list the technology. To ask what one company deploys, search the name alone and read techCodes off the result. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| cap | No | The limit that was applied. Present when capped. | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| shown | No | Number of providers returned. Present when capped. | |
| notice | No | Guidance about the result set — that the list was capped at the limit, that the upstream scan returned a sample rather than every match, and how to broaden the search when nothing matched. Absent when none applies. | |
| offset | No | Number of sorted providers skipped. | |
| providers | No | Matching providers, deduplicated by holding company. | |
| truncated | No | True when results were capped at the limit and more providers may exist. Absent when not capped. | |
| nextOffset | No | Next offset when another page remains in the computed match set. | |
| scanRowCap | No | Raw upstream row ceiling that bound the scan. Present only when scanTruncated is true. | |
| totalCount | No | Distinct providers matching the query, before the limit. Present only when the scan read every matching row — absent when scanTruncated is true, because the true match count is then unknown. | |
| totalFound | No | Providers in this response. Not the number matching the query — that is totalCount, and it is only knowable when the scan read every matching row. | |
| dataVintage | No | Data vintage — Form 477 data as of June 2021. | |
| scanTruncated | No | True when the upstream row scan stopped at its ceiling before reaching the end of the matching data, so the providers returned are a sample of the matches rather than the complete set. Bounds which companies came back, not what each one reports — statesServed and techCodes are resolved per company and stay complete. Absent when the scan read every matching row. | |
| appliedFilters | No | Filters applied to this query. |