4 ms·

70% of households in the county have internet speeds >25 Mbps. Is that metric meaningful to you? What would ideally mean "good internet access?" I'm working on

70% of households in the county have internet speeds >25 Mbps. Is that metric meaningful to you? What would ideally mean "good internet access?" I'm working on a project[0] where I sourced this from the FCC Broadband data and am curious about what people are looking for in that respect. [0] https://www.exoroad.com/us/Maryland/Allegany-County/housing https://www.exoroad.com/us/Maryland/Allegany-County/housing

Barrin92 2y ago
> What would ideally mean "good internet access?" For someone who relies on a internet connection for their professional work I'd say 100 Mbps is the floor of "good" in 2024. I think that's what the FCC updated their definition of broadband to earlier this year.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
  ROFLMAO. I dream of 100Mbps. The only thing my ISP can guarantee is that it will be "at least" 10Mbps. Unfortunately, knowing that fiber is a mere 0.5 miles from my house doesn't help me in the slightest.
- reducesuffering 2y ago
  Thank you! Turns out I was missing 'Urban' category, so Cumberland itself still has 99% of households with >100 Mbps available.
kavok 2y ago
Upload, download, latency, and how many options to choose from are what I looked for the last time I bought a house. I actually asked some of the neighbors about it and called local ISPs.
kjellsbells 2y ago
First, if you aren't already, look into what the FCC is doing with BEAD funding, and consequently what all the states are doing with mapping broadband provision to try and capture some of that money. Tennesee for example. More generally, there is a little funkiness with the exoroad site. I guess this project is still in the assembly stage? - When I search for a US county, say Culpeper or Fairfax in Virginia, I get the map and then some very stock images. The images are on things that don't exist in the specific county. E.g. Fairfax doesn't have a cathedral and a giant stately home. - The crime stats are also a bit weirdly presented. If a county is "9 of 10" for crime that makes it sound terrible...but I think you render it in green to show that it's good? And what does the statistic actually mean? "out of 10 equivalently populated counties?" say, or something else?
- reducesuffering 2y ago
  Yes it's a scrappy MVP right now. Images have quality problems, like you described, as I haven't got accuracy figured out across the 3k+ counties. Crime stat is awkward because everything else 9/10 (schools / snow) sounds like good or a lot. But with crime, it's a feature that people want less of. Since there's so many features I went with 10/10 is consistently good, but I do keep getting feedback about this that maybe I should change it. Out of 10 is a percentile: 10/10 = top 10%, 9/10 = top 20%, 1/10 = bottom 10%. I'm trying to figure out the right granularity between showing the most important info for quickly figuring out the stat, vs. showing all the details about it, because there's 50 features, with another potential 50, and many have multiple ways of thinking about it. So it can quickly become a deluge of info without the right UI to surface <-> deep. I really appreciate the feedback and my email is eric@exoroad.com in case this is off topic.
KennyBlanken 2y ago
When I looked at the claimed coverage map from providers it was a joke - they just played "color inside the lines" for our region. Ask anyone who has spent more than a couple days here and they can tick off all the areas you don't get any coverage.
- reducesuffering 2y ago
  Are you in Cumberland? Would you say 99% of households having the possibility of > 100 Mbps is wildly inaccurate?

Barrin92 2y ago

> What would ideally mean "good internet access?" For someone who relies on a internet connection for their professional work I'd say 100 Mbps is the floor of "good" in 2024. I think that's what the FCC updated their definition of broadband to earlier this year.

HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
ROFLMAO. I dream of 100Mbps. The only thing my ISP can guarantee is that it will be "at least" 10Mbps. Unfortunately, knowing that fiber is a mere 0.5 miles from my house doesn't help me in the slightest.
reducesuffering 2y ago
Thank you! Turns out I was missing 'Urban' category, so Cumberland itself still has 99% of households with >100 Mbps available.

kavok 2y ago

Upload, download, latency, and how many options to choose from are what I looked for the last time I bought a house. I actually asked some of the neighbors about it and called local ISPs.

kjellsbells 2y ago

First, if you aren't already, look into what the FCC is doing with BEAD funding, and consequently what all the states are doing with mapping broadband provision to try and capture some of that money. Tennesee for example. More generally, there is a little funkiness with the exoroad site. I guess this project is still in the assembly stage? - When I search for a US county, say Culpeper or Fairfax in Virginia, I get the map and then some very stock images. The images are on things that don't exist in the specific county. E.g. Fairfax doesn't have a cathedral and a giant stately home. - The crime stats are also a bit weirdly presented. If a county is "9 of 10" for crime that makes it sound terrible...but I think you render it in green to show that it's good? And what does the statistic actually mean? "out of 10 equivalently populated counties?" say, or something else?

reducesuffering 2y ago
Yes it's a scrappy MVP right now. Images have quality problems, like you described, as I haven't got accuracy figured out across the 3k+ counties. Crime stat is awkward because everything else 9/10 (schools / snow) sounds like good or a lot. But with crime, it's a feature that people want less of. Since there's so many features I went with 10/10 is consistently good, but I do keep getting feedback about this that maybe I should change it. Out of 10 is a percentile: 10/10 = top 10%, 9/10 = top 20%, 1/10 = bottom 10%. I'm trying to figure out the right granularity between showing the most important info for quickly figuring out the stat, vs. showing all the details about it, because there's 50 features, with another potential 50, and many have multiple ways of thinking about it. So it can quickly become a deluge of info without the right UI to surface <-> deep. I really appreciate the feedback and my email is eric@exoroad.com in case this is off topic.

KennyBlanken 2y ago

When I looked at the claimed coverage map from providers it was a joke - they just played "color inside the lines" for our region. Ask anyone who has spent more than a couple days here and they can tick off all the areas you don't get any coverage.

reducesuffering 2y ago
Are you in Cumberland? Would you say 99% of households having the possibility of > 100 Mbps is wildly inaccurate?