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Hey, co-founder of Broadbandnow.com here and author of the article. In our initial development of the site we realized that MOST people don't know what census

Hey, co-founder of Broadbandnow.com here and author of the article. In our initial development of the site we realized that MOST people don't know what census block they live in, where everyone knows what zip code they live in.

untog 12y ago
It ought to be possible to map between them, no? I know census blocks are smaller than zip code blocks, but you could provide a choice (or just ask for street address).
jauer 12y ago
That makes sense, especially for getting started. Have you considered ways to guide people to narrowing down their location? We store shapefiles (I'm doing GeoJSON in RethinkDB but same difference) for every census tract that we cover with the speed and technology offered (because that's what the FCC requires). Since we have the data we're redoing our service availability mapping so prospective clients can drag the placemark icon on gMaps to their house (because geocoding is horrid in our area and you need to compensate for long driveways) and then show them what's available. It's interesting when service location is abstracted out. We have a rural residential POP where the immediate neighborhood has fiber, the surrounding mile or two has 10-25Mbps fixed-wireless, and then out to 6 miles has 1M-384k fixed wireless. It's all in the same zip code, and actually, because it's so rural, mostly the same census block. The consumer impact of this: we get people calling us after looking at online broadband maps excited to sign up for fiber and living in the 4 mile range only to get their hopes crushed. Then they realize they can chose between 1Mbps with no cap or 15Mbps LTE with high overages.
- nickreese 12y ago
  I'd love to chat with you about the best way to make this happen on a large scale. If most providers have shapefiles, is there a common method we could use to collect/manage that data that you'd recommend? Almost every day (sometimes 5-6 a day) we have smaller providers who email us looking to update their coverage or adding more coverage, but we haven't come up with a manageable way to make it happen. Then there is the whole validation issue which opens a huge can of worms. If you're open to chat, I'd be incredibly grateful, we've been trying to tackle this problem for months. Feel free to drop us a line at help [at] broadbandnow.com
akamel 12y ago
Hey nickreese; the data is way off. not onlt is basing it on zip not sufficient; but the data is not consistant with actual provider data. I put in my zip; was told I have WAVE as a provider in the area. 'thats news to me' so I go to wave and enter my zip. 'yup; they aren't in my area' I think you need more accurate data before you can put 39mil in your title! the situation is _much_ worst!

untog 12y ago

It ought to be possible to map between them, no? I know census blocks are smaller than zip code blocks, but you could provide a choice (or just ask for street address).

jauer 12y ago

That makes sense, especially for getting started. Have you considered ways to guide people to narrowing down their location? We store shapefiles (I'm doing GeoJSON in RethinkDB but same difference) for every census tract that we cover with the speed and technology offered (because that's what the FCC requires). Since we have the data we're redoing our service availability mapping so prospective clients can drag the placemark icon on gMaps to their house (because geocoding is horrid in our area and you need to compensate for long driveways) and then show them what's available. It's interesting when service location is abstracted out. We have a rural residential POP where the immediate neighborhood has fiber, the surrounding mile or two has 10-25Mbps fixed-wireless, and then out to 6 miles has 1M-384k fixed wireless. It's all in the same zip code, and actually, because it's so rural, mostly the same census block. The consumer impact of this: we get people calling us after looking at online broadband maps excited to sign up for fiber and living in the 4 mile range only to get their hopes crushed. Then they realize they can chose between 1Mbps with no cap or 15Mbps LTE with high overages.

nickreese 12y ago
I'd love to chat with you about the best way to make this happen on a large scale. If most providers have shapefiles, is there a common method we could use to collect/manage that data that you'd recommend? Almost every day (sometimes 5-6 a day) we have smaller providers who email us looking to update their coverage or adding more coverage, but we haven't come up with a manageable way to make it happen. Then there is the whole validation issue which opens a huge can of worms. If you're open to chat, I'd be incredibly grateful, we've been trying to tackle this problem for months. Feel free to drop us a line at help [at] broadbandnow.com

akamel 12y ago

Hey nickreese; the data is way off. not onlt is basing it on zip not sufficient; but the data is not consistant with actual provider data. I put in my zip; was told I have WAVE as a provider in the area. 'thats news to me' so I go to wave and enter my zip. 'yup; they aren't in my area' I think you need more accurate data before you can put 39mil in your title! the situation is _much_ worst!