fcc-broadband-mcp-server

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Overview

FCC broadband data from Form 477 (June 2015 – June 2021) and the Broadband Data Collection (June 2022 onward). Geocode coordinates to census blocks, look up the ISPs and advertised speeds at a block, and summarize, compare, or rank geographies by unserved population for BEAD and equity research.

Tools

Tool	Description
fcc_geocode_block	Convert a lat/lon coordinate to a 2010-vintage census block FIPS code, with county and state identifiers
fcc_search_availability	List the providers and advertised speeds at a census block, filtered by technology and speed
fcc_search_geographies	Find place and CBSA GEOIDs by name for coverage queries
fcc_get_coverage_summary	Population by provider count for one geography, split by urban/rural and tribal/non-tribal
fcc_compare_areas	Rank coverage across several geographies of the same type, worst first
fcc_find_underserved	Rank the most underserved areas in a state or nationwide by unserved population
fcc_search_providers	Search holding companies by name, state, and technology; returns hoconum identifiers
fcc_get_provider	National coverage profile for one holding company: technologies and population per speed tier
fcc_list_filing_periods	List data vintages: Form 477 filing periods and BDC as-of dates
fcc_list_downloads	List BDC bulk data files for one as-of date

Resources

Resource	Description
fcc-broadband://geography/{type}/{id}/summary	Coverage summary for one geography at 25 Mbps
fcc-broadband://providers/list/{offset}	One page of the Form 477 holding-company directory, 25 entries per page

Resource data is also reachable through tools: fcc_get_coverage_summary for geographies, fcc_search_providers for holding companies.

Prompts

Prompt	Description
broadband_equity_analysis	Structure a digital divide analysis that chains FCC coverage with Census and BLS data

Capability reference

fcc_geocode_block _tool

• latitude and longitude in decimal degrees, resolved against 2010 census boundaries through the FCC Geo API
• Returns blockFips (15 digits, ready for fcc_search_availability), censusVintage, countyFips, countyName, stateFips, stateCode, and stateName; coordinates over water or outside US coverage fail as block_not_found. Structured FCC backend faults fail as geo_backend_unavailable with guidance to retry the same coordinates later

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fcc_search_availability _tool

• block_fips (15 digits, 2010 vintage) is required; tech_filter (Form 477 technology codes), min_speed_down (Mbps), and consumer (true consumer, false business) narrow the rows
• One row per offering with hoconum, techCode / techLabel, maxDownloadMbps, maxUploadMbps, consumer, and business, plus totalProviders counting distinct holding companies; an unfiltered block with no providers fails as block_not_found, while a filtered query that matches nothing returns an empty list with a notice

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fcc_search_geographies _tool

• Required nonblank name matches a case-insensitive literal substring; optional geography_type is place or cbsa, limit defaults to 20 (max 100), and offset starts at 0
• Returns distinct { geography_type, geography_id, name } matches in stable name/type/GEOID order, plus count, offset, and nextOffset only when more matches remain. Empty and past-end pages carry guidance; no total count is computed
• Uses the live FCC lookup with year='2021' even when the mirror is enabled. Include a location qualifier in name to narrow matches; CBSA codes do not establish state membership. Pass the selected type and GEOID to fcc_get_coverage_summary

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fcc_get_coverage_summary _tool

• geography_type is one of nation, state, county, cd, place, cbsa, tribal; geography_id is required for every type but nation; urban_rural_filter (all / R / U) and tribal_filter (all / T / N) narrow the population
• Returns population by provider count (noCoverage, oneProvider, twoProviders, threeOrMore, total), coveragePct, unservedPct, competitivePct, and a per-segment breakdown; fails as geography_not_found, invalid_geography_combo, or invalid_geography_id_shape
• National coverage is named United States locally and retains geography.id: "0"; it needs no geography-name lookup

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fcc_compare_areas _tool

• 2 to 50 geography_ids of one geography_type (every type but nation), or compare_all_states: true for the 50 states plus DC; sort_by is unserved_pct (default), unserved_pop, coverage_pct, or competitive_pct
• Every sort ranks worst first, so rank 1 is the area most in need; rows carry id, name when resolved, the provider-count populations, and all three percentages. Fails as missing_geography_ids, invalid_all_states_combo, invalid_geography_id_shape, or no_data_found

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fcc_find_underserved _tool

• state (USPS state or territory code) scopes the search, otherwise it runs nationwide; geography_type is county (default), cd, place, or cbsa; urban_rural_filter defaults to R, min_unserved_pop to 1, and limit to 20 (max 100)
• Areas ranked by noCoverage, each with rank, id, name, oneProvider, total, unservedPct, and coveragePct; totalFound counts matches before the limit. An unrecognized state fails as unknown_state, and filters that match nothing return an empty ranking with a notice

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fcc_search_providers _tool

• name_search (case-insensitive partial name), state, and tech_filter are all optional and must hold on the same filing; limit defaults to 50 (max 200)
• Deduplicated holding companies with hoconum, holdingCompanyName, and national statesServed / techCodes that the filters never narrow. No match returns an empty list with a notice; a live search over its 30-second budget fails as live_search_timeout
• Against the live API, scanTruncated: true marks the list as a sample and totalCount is omitted; a full-corpus mirror (FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED=true) returns every match

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fcc_get_provider _tool

• hoconum (digits only) from fcc_search_providers or the providers directory resource
• Returns techCodes / techLabels and speedTierPopulation, which counts each person once and omits empty tiers; business-only carriers come back with both lists empty. Fails as provider_not_found, or live_provider_timeout past the 30-second budget

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fcc_list_filing_periods _tool

• Always returns the Form 477 periods; include_bdc: true adds BDC as-of dates when credentials are configured
• periods newest first, each with asOfDate and source (form477 or bdc), plus form477Count, bdcCount, and hasBdcCredentials; missing credentials leave bdcCount at 0 rather than raising an error

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fcc_list_downloads _tool

• as_of_date (YYYY-MM-DD) is required; filter by data_type (availability default, or challenge), category (Summary, State, Provider), technology_type (Fixed Broadband, Mobile Broadband, Mobile Voice), state, and provider_name; limit defaults to 50 (max 200), paged with offset
• Returns file metadata and a downloadUrl per file, not file contents; totalFiles counts every match and nextOffset is omitted on the last page. Fails as invalid_as_of_date for an unsupported date
• Available to MCP clients only when both BDC credentials are configured at startup. Otherwise the HTTP landing page retains its disabled card and setup guidance

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

• type takes the seven fcc_get_coverage_summary geography types; id is a FIPS GEOID checked for digit count, 0 for nation
• Fixed at 25 Mbps and acfosw; returns population, the three percentages, and segments as application/json. Use fcc_get_coverage_summary for other thresholds or filters

---

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

• offset pages the directory 25 entries at a time in hoconum order; start at 0 and follow nextOffset
• Entries carry hoconum and, when resolved, holdingCompanyName; each page reports total and count. To find one company by name, use fcc_search_providers

---

broadband_equity_analysis _prompt

• Arguments: region (free text) and focus (underserved, rural, tribal, or all), both required
• Returns one user message laying out a five-step analysis: baseline coverage, focus area, demographic cross-reference, provider landscape, and BEAD context

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:

• Three FCC sources, all US government public-domain data: Form 477 on FCC Open Data (Socrata), the BDC Public Data API, and the FCC Geo API
• Every Form 477 tool and resource works without credentials and reads the June 2021 filing, the last one; BDC data is exposed only as bulk-file manifests. fcc_list_downloads is advertised to MCP clients only when both FCC_BDC_USERNAME and FCC_BDC_HASH_VALUE are configured
• The area tools share one vocabulary: tech_filter letters (acfosw for every technology, the default; a DSL, c cable, f fiber, o other, s satellite, w fixed wireless) and speed_down tiers (0.2, 4, 10, 25, 100, 250, 1000 Mbps; default 25, and 100 is the BEAD threshold)
• Coverage analysis reads the pre-aggregated Area Table (xvwq-qtaj), not the block-level deployment table, so state- and county-scale queries stay fast
• Optional local Form 477 mirror (FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED=true) serves queries from SQLite, falling back to the live API for anything not ingested

Agent-friendly output:

• Filter echo: search, summary, and ranking tools return appliedFilters, and every Form 477 result carries dataVintage
• Partial results say so: scanTruncated and scanRowCap flag a result drawn from a capped upstream scan (fcc_search_providers, fcc_find_underserved), and an empty match returns a notice instead of an error
• Typed failures: reasons such as block_not_found, invalid_geography_id_shape, and credentials_required, each with a recovery hint

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

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 FCC_BDC_USERNAME, FCC_BDC_HASH_VALUE, and FCC_OPENDATA_APP_TOKEN as needed

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
FCC_BDC_USERNAME	FCC account email for the BDC API. Needed by fcc_list_downloads and for BDC dates in fcc_list_filing_periods.	none
FCC_BDC_HASH_VALUE	API token hash from broadbandmap.fcc.gov "Manage API Access". Pairs with FCC_BDC_USERNAME.	none
FCC_OPENDATA_APP_TOKEN	Socrata app token; raises FCC Open Data rate limits.	none
FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED	Serve Form 477 queries from the local SQLite mirror where its coverage allows.	false
FCC_MIRROR_PATH	Directory holding the mirror SQLite files.	data/fcc-mirror
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE	Transport: stdio or http.	stdio
MCP_HTTP_PORT	HTTP server port.	3010
MCP_SESSION_MODE	HTTP session mode: stateless, stateful, or auto.	stateless
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Authentication: none, jwt, or oauth.	none
MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level (debug, info, warning, error, etc.).	info
LOGS_DIR	Directory for log files (Node.js only).	<project-root>/logs
STORAGE_PROVIDER_TYPE	Storage backend: in-memory, filesystem, supabase, cloudflare-kv/r2/d1.	in-memory
OTEL_ENABLED	Enable OpenTelemetry.	false

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

BDC credentials can come from the process environment or .env; process values take precedence. Empty, whitespace-only, and unsubstituted placeholder values count as absent. Restart after configuring both credentials to enable fcc_list_downloads; Form 477 filing periods remain available without them.

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 -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. The image also ships the mirror scripts and a writable data/ directory.

Local Form 477 mirror

Form 477 is frozen at the June 2021 filing, so it can be ingested once into a local SQLite index. The mirror is off by default, and the full corpus is about 9 GB of source data and takes hours to ingest, so the bootstrap can be scoped to the states you query:

bun run mirror:init -- --states 11,53   # specific states by 2-digit FIPS (11 = DC, 53 = WA)
bun run mirror:init -- --full           # the whole corpus
bun run mirror:verify                   # coverage, row counts, SQLite integrity

Then set FCC_MIRROR_ENABLED=true. In Docker, run the same scripts with docker exec <container> bun run mirror:init -- --states 11,53. Run them from a source checkout or the image: the scripts import through the @/ path alias, which an npm install does not map.

• Block and geography lookups serve from the mirror once the queried state is fully ingested; anything else falls back to the live API.
• fcc_search_geographies always uses the live lookup: the mirror does not retain its year column.
• fcc_search_providers, fcc_get_provider, and geographies with no state in their GEOID (cbsa, tribal, nation) serve from the mirror only after a --full ingest.
• Mirror name search matches word prefixes (comc finds "Comcast") where the live API matches any substring (mcast), so a mid-word fragment can return fewer results.
• The ingest is idempotent and resumes an interrupted run from its saved cursor. Set FCC_OPENDATA_APP_TOKEN first for a full ingest. Bun uses the built-in bun:sqlite; Node.js needs the optional better-sqlite3 peer dependency.

Project structure

Directory	Purpose
src/index.ts	createApp() entry point — registers tools, resources, and prompts and inits services.
src/config	Server-specific environment variable parsing and validation with Zod.
src/mcp-server/tools	Tool definitions (*.tool.ts). Ten tools across FCC Open Data, the BDC API, and the Geo API.
src/mcp-server/resources	Resource definitions (*.resource.ts). Geography summary and provider directory.
src/mcp-server/prompts	Prompt definitions (*.prompt.ts). Broadband equity analysis prompt.
src/services/open-data	FCC Open Data (Socrata) service for Form 477 deployment, area, and provider tables; mirror/ holds the local SQLite mirror.
src/services/bdc-api	BDC Public Data API service — authenticated filing periods and download manifests.
src/services/geo-api	FCC Geo API service — lat/lon to census block FIPS.
scripts/	Build, devcheck, and packaging scripts, plus fcc-mirror-init.ts / fcc-mirror-verify.ts.
tests/	Unit and integration tests mirroring src/.

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 every field as a string, so parse counts and speeds (has_0–has_3more, maxaddown, maxadup) explicitly

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.