fcc-broadband-mcp-server

Public Hosted Server: https://fcc-broadband.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Overview

FCC broadband availability, coverage analysis, and digital divide data across Form 477 (2015–2021) and BDC (2022–present) filings. Geocode coordinates to census blocks, look up ISP availability and speeds, and rank geographies by unserved population for BEAD program and equity research. Runs as a stdio process, a local Streamable HTTP server, or the public hosted endpoint above.

Tools

Resources

All resource data is also reachable via tools — the directory pages the provider summary table and resolves each name with a single-hoconum lookup; to find one company by name rather than paging, use fcc_search_providers.

Prompts

Related MCP server: OpenUSPublicDataMCP

Capability reference

fcc_geocode_block tool

• Calls the FCC Geo API — no auth required, no rate limit documented

• Returns a 15-digit block FIPS code, its census vintage, 5-digit county FIPS, county name, state FIPS, 2-letter state code, and state name

• Resolves against 2010 census boundaries — the vintage the Form 477 deployment dataset is keyed by, so blockFips feeds fcc_search_availability directly

• Required first step before fcc_search_availability — the broadband deployment dataset is indexed by census block, not address

• Typed error: block_not_found when no census block matches the coordinates (over water or outside US coverage)

fcc_search_availability tool

• Requires a 15-digit census block FIPS on 2010 boundaries; use fcc_geocode_block to convert coordinates first

• Filter by any Form 477 technology code (0, 10–12, 20, 30, 40–43, 50, 60, 70, 90), minimum advertised download speed in Mbps, and consumer-only/business-only service

• Returns per-provider records with hoconum, techCode/techLabel, maxDownloadMbps, maxUploadMbps, consumer, business

• Coverage is Form 477 data through June 2021 — ISP-reported availability at census block granularity, which can overstate coverage for some addresses

• Typed error: block_not_found when the block has no reported providers and no filters were applied

fcc_get_coverage_summary tool

• Supports seven geography types: nation, state, county, cd (congressional district), place (census-designated place), cbsa (metro area), tribal

• Technology filter: any wired/fixed wireless (acfosw), fiber only (f), cable (c), DSL (a), satellite (s), fixed wireless (w), or combinations

• Speed thresholds: 0.2, 4, 10, 25 (FCC legacy broadband definition), 100 (BEAD standard), 250, 1000 Mbps

• Returns population breakdowns — zero providers (unserved), one (no competition), two, three-plus — plus coverage/unserved/competitive percentages, with a per-segment urban/rural × tribal/non-tribal split

• Typed errors: geography_not_found, invalid_geography_combo (geography_id required for non-nation types, must be omitted for nation), invalid_geography_id_shape (digit count must match the type: state=2, county=5, cd=4, cbsa=5, place=7)

fcc_compare_areas tool

• Compare up to 50 geographies of the same type, or all 50 states + DC via compare_all_states: true

• Sort by unserved population share, raw unserved headcount (useful for BEAD funding allocation), coverage rate, or competitive share

• Every sort ranks worst-first — rank 1 is the area most in need, whichever metric is chosen

• Returns a ranked table with per-geography population and coverage metrics; each row includes the resolved geography name alongside its GEOID when available

• Typed errors: no_data_found, invalid_all_states_combo, missing_geography_ids (fewer than 2 provided), invalid_geography_id_shape

fcc_find_underserved tool

• Scope to a specific state or territory (2-letter USPS code), or run nationwide (returns top areas only)

• Geography granularity: county, congressional district, census place, or CBSA; defaults to rural areas only, where underservice is most concentrated

• min_unserved_pop defaults to 1, so fully covered areas stay out of the ranking; set to 0 to rank every area or higher to drop small gaps

• Results ranked by unserved population, highest first, up to limit (default 20, max 100); each row includes the resolved geography name alongside its GEOID when available

• Typed errors: unknown_state (not a real USPS state or territory abbreviation); filters matching no area return an empty ranking with a notice, not an error

fcc_search_providers tool

• Case-insensitive partial name match on holding company name; filter by 2-letter state abbreviation or Form 477 technology code

• Returns deduplicated holding companies with hoconum, plus each company's complete national statesServed and techCodes — resolved per company, not narrowed by the state/tech filters

• Geographic filtering is state-level; sub-state granularity requires cross-referencing block data via fcc_search_availability

• Up to 200 results per call

• When the live scan hits its row ceiling (scanTruncated), the returned providers are a sample and the true match count is unavailable — narrow the filters or enable the local Form 477 mirror (FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED=true) for a complete search

• Typed errors: live_search_timeout (30-second budget, non-retryable); a search matching nothing returns an empty result with a notice, not an error

fcc_get_provider tool

• Input: hoconum (digits only) from fcc_search_providers

• Returns national techCodes/techLabels and population covered per download speed tier; tiers with zero coverage are omitted

• Population per tier counts each person once, regardless of how many technologies reach them

• Business-only carriers with no reported residential coverage return empty techCodes/speedTierPopulation — use fcc_search_availability for their block-level deployments

• Typed errors: provider_not_found, live_provider_timeout (30-second budget, non-retryable — enable the local Form 477 mirror to serve profiles locally)

fcc_list_filing_periods tool

• Form 477 periods (Jun 2015–Jun 2021) are hardcoded — always available, no credentials needed

• include_bdc defaults to false; set true to also fetch BDC as-of dates (Jun 2022 onward) from the authenticated API — requires FCC_BDC_USERNAME and FCC_BDC_HASH_VALUE

• Call before fcc_list_downloads to determine valid as_of_date values

fcc_list_downloads tool

• Requires BDC API credentials (FCC_BDC_USERNAME, FCC_BDC_HASH_VALUE)

• Filter by data type (availability or challenge), file category, technology type, state, or provider name

• Returns file manifests, not file contents — file metadata (provider, state, technology, record count) plus download URLs; BDC CSVs are large zipped files not suitable for inline API response

• Paged with limit (default 50, max 200) and offset — totalFiles counts every file matching the filters, and each response reports its offset, file count, and a nextOffset, omitted on the last page

• Typed error invalid_as_of_date: rejected without credentials when not a calendar date or before the first BDC period (2022-06-30); rejected with credentials when the date isn't among the published set

• Typed error credentials_required when BDC credentials are absent

fcc-broadband://geography/{type}/{id}/summary resource

• Addressable by geography type (nation, state, county, cd, place, cbsa, tribal) and FIPS GEOID; GEOID digit count is validated per type

• Fixed to a 25 Mbps threshold and acfosw (any wired/fixed wireless) technology filter — use fcc_get_coverage_summary for other thresholds or filters

• Returns population by provider tier, coverage/unserved/competitive percentages, and a per-segment urban/rural × tribal/non-tribal breakdown

fcc-broadband://providers/list/{offset} resource

• Pages the Form 477 holding-company directory 25 entries at a time, ordered by hoconum ascending; start at offset 0 and follow each response's nextOffset

• Each entry resolves hoconum to a company name when the FCC deployment table carries a matching row; unresolved entries omit holdingCompanyName

• To find one company by name rather than browsing, use fcc_search_providers instead

broadband_equity_analysis prompt

• Arguments: region (free text) required; focus (underserved, rural, tribal, all) required

• Returns one user message structuring a five-step analysis — baseline coverage, focus-specific deep dive, demographic cross-reference (Census/BLS/CDC), provider landscape, and BEAD eligibility

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

FCC-specific:

• Wraps three FCC data sources: Form 477 public data via Socrata (no auth, 2015–2021), BDC Public Data API (authenticated, Jun 2022 onward), and FCC Geo API (no auth)

• Auth-optional design — BDC tools return a structured credentials_required error with setup instructions when credentials are absent; all Form 477 and geocoding tools always work without credentials

• Area Table aggregation for equity analysis — uses the pre-aggregated geography table (xvwq-qtaj) instead of querying the 50M-row deployment table, enabling fast coverage analysis at county and state scale

• Optional local Form 477 mirror (FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED=true) serves block/geography lookups from an embedded SQLite index once bootstrapped, with live-API fallback for anything not yet ingested

• All data is US federal government public domain (17 USC §105) — safe to distribute and cache

Agent-friendly output:

• Structured error contracts on every tool — typed error codes (block_not_found, credentials_required, geography_not_found, invalid_as_of_date) with actionable next-step hints so agents can recover without parsing text

• Per-segment breakdowns in coverage tools — urban/rural and tribal/non-tribal split in fcc_get_coverage_summary outputs so agents can target equity analysis without additional queries

• Two-era data coverage bridged transparently — Form 477 (2015–2021) and BDC (2022–present) exposed through a unified tool surface, with data ceiling documented in tool descriptions so agents can surface limitations accurately

Getting started

Public Hosted Instance

A public instance is available at https://fcc-broadband.caseyjhand.com/mcp — no installation required. Point any MCP client at it via Streamable HTTP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fcc-broadband-mcp-server": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://fcc-broadband.caseyjhand.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Self-Hosted / Local

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fcc-broadband-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/fcc-broadband-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fcc-broadband-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/fcc-broadband-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).

• Optional: FCC BDC credentials for fcc_list_downloads and BDC filing periods. Generate a token at broadbandmap.fcc.gov under "Manage API Access" — no OAuth, manual token generation only.

• Optional: Socrata app token (FCC_OPENDATA_APP_TOKEN) for higher rate limits on Form 477 queries.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/fcc-broadband-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd fcc-broadband-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# edit .env and set required vars

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/. Key environment variables:

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Local Form 477 mirror (opt-in)

The Form 477 corpus is frozen — June 2021 was the last filing period — so it can be mirrored locally once and served without touching the live Socrata API. The mirror is off by default; when disabled (or not yet bootstrapped), every tool behaves exactly as before.

The corpus is large: ~78M block-level deployment rows and ~24M area-summary rows, roughly 9 GB of source data. A full ingest is an hours-scale one-time job, so the bootstrap is state-scoped — you can mirror just the states you query:

# Ingest specific states by 2-digit FIPS (e.g. 11 = DC, 53 = WA)
bun run mirror:init -- --states 11,53

# Or ingest the whole corpus (~9 GB download, hours)
bun run mirror:init -- --full

# Inspect coverage, row counts, and SQLite integrity
bun run mirror:verify

Then set FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED=true. Serving rules:

• Block/geography lookups (fcc_search_availability, fcc_get_coverage_summary, fcc_compare_areas, fcc_find_underserved) serve from the mirror when the queried state is fully ingested; anything else falls back to the live API silently.

• Cross-state aggregations (fcc_search_providers, fcc_get_provider) and geographies whose GEOID embeds no state (cbsa, tribal, nation) serve from the mirror only after a --full ingest.

One behavioral difference: provider name search (fcc_search_providers) uses word-prefix matching on the mirror (FTS5 — comc matches "Comcast") instead of the live API's arbitrary-substring match (mcast matches "Comcast" live but not on the mirror). Mid-word fragments may return fewer results from the mirror.

The ingest is idempotent and resumable: already-covered states are skipped, and an interrupted run resumes from its persisted cursor. Set FCC_OPENDATA_APP_TOKEN before a full ingest to raise Socrata's rate limits. Under Bun the mirror uses the built-in bun:sqlite; under Node.js install the optional better-sqlite3 peer dependency.

In Docker, the image ships the lifecycle scripts and a writable data/ directory:

docker exec <container> bun run mirror:init -- --states 11,53

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker build -t fcc-broadband-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -e MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http -p 3010:3010 fcc-broadband-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport and stateless session mode, logging to /var/log/fcc-broadband-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic

• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage

• Register new tools and resources via the barrels in src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts

• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

• Socrata returns all numeric fields as strings — parse has_0, has_1, has_2, has_3more, maxaddown, maxadup as integers

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.