Right, Matt. Even with zip code included we had some come back in the wrong county. A couple were even in the wrong state.
Matt Larsen - Lists wrote: > Unfortunately, this doesn't resolve anything for me. NONE of the > geocoding engines have the data for the customers that are not accurate > in my system. The hole in the process has to do with the county level > information is not up to date or not provided to the geocoding > service. This is also a problem with doing local number portability, > as we have found out on a couple of occasions. > > Matt Larsen > vistabeam.com > > Michael Baird wrote: > >> For next time, check http://www.geocode.com/, it cost about $35 per >> 1000, and does all that you need to do to submit the data. >> >> Regards >> Michael Baird >> >> >>> I know and feel your pain there. Luckily we do not have that many customers >>> but 75% of our customer addresses does not geocode and we are doing >>> something similar as your doing with #2 where the installers have to try to >>> pin point the correct right location for the install. Pain is the installs >>> done by installers that are no longer with us. >>> >>> I think its a great idea what they are doing but lack of proper automated >>> query systems and in accurate address databases that can not handle the >>> addresses we feed makes the progress harder and slow. >>> >>> /Eje >>> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Matt Larsen - Lists <li...@manageisp.com> >>> >>> Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 10:49:41 >>> To: WISPA General List<wireless@wispa.org>; <w...@part-15.org>; Motorola >>> Canopy User Group<motor...@wispa.org> >>> Subject: [WISPA] Response to the FCC Regarding Form 477 >>> >>> >>> I thought I would share this email that I just sent to the FCC regarding >>> the Form 477 report. I am late filing this report because we don't have >>> accurate data and thought that my reasons why were worth sharing with my >>> colleagues. I support what the FCC is trying to do with Form477, but was >>> not able to in good conscience turn in our data by the report deadline. >>> >>> I hope that this is valuable to some of you out there. >>> >>> Matt Larsen >>> vistabeam.com >>> >>> --- >>> >>> Hi Suzanne, >>> >>> I am not really in a position where I can give a projected date to have >>> this information completed for you. However, I do feel it would be >>> valuable to explain why and provide you and your management some more >>> information as to why I am unable to give you a better date on when we >>> intend to have it completed. >>> >>> For background, Vistabeam (Inventive Wireless of Nebraska) is a wireless >>> ISP that covers about 40,000 square miles in Nebraska and Wyoming. We >>> have around 2000 customers spread out across this very thinly populated >>> area. Even though we are quite small in customer number compared to >>> other ISPs, we have a very good billing and provisioning system and >>> quite a bit of detail on our customers. However, we did not have census >>> tract information for our customers as there had never been a need for >>> it until the latest Form477 notice came out earlier this year. >>> >>> Once we received the Form477 notice, we made plans to modify our billing >>> system to add the census tract information, which we were successful in >>> doing. We also studied how to obtain geocoding information from multiple >>> sources and how to integrate this into our database so that we could >>> complete the report. Our initial integration seemed to be successful >>> until we started to look at the geocoding data that we received and >>> realized that over 50% of the census tract information was invalid. >>> >>> After going through this data, we found that many of the addresses we >>> have for customers are simply not being processed and located correctly. >>> The majority of our customers are in rural areas with references to "CR" >>> and "Road xxx" and other rural address forms that the geocoding engines >>> simply cannot process. Many of these rural counties do not have GIS >>> departments with the ability to provide the geocoding information for >>> these addresses. In the event that the address doesn't code, the >>> geocoding engine returns the census tract information for the nearest >>> Post Office, which is not in the correct census tract. >>> >>> To get the correct information, we basically have two options. >>> >>> Option #1 is to drive out to every customer with a GPS unit and record >>> the information into our system. Since we have approximately 1100 >>> customers with inaccurate information, this is going to be a time >>> consuming process and would cost us several thousand dollars to collect >>> -- not to mention the lost man hours. >>> >>> Option #2 is to go through each customer record and use Google Earth and >>> the driving directions to each customer location to determine the census >>> tract. This takes about five minutes per customer record, so we are >>> looking at about 92 man hours to get that data assembled and inserted >>> into our customer database. >>> >>> We have chosen to go with Option #2 to collect the invalid census tract >>> data. However, I do not have the manpower to devote dedicated time to >>> this data collection so we have distributed this project among several >>> employees and are making as much progress as we can when our workflow >>> allows for it. After a month, we are about 10% of the way through it. We >>> are now entering our slower time of the year, so hopefully we will make >>> a little bit better progress on it going forward, but I cannot make any >>> guarantees on when we will get the data completed. >>> >>> This leaves me with a quandary -- I can either provide you with timely, >>> but inaccurate information that is going to skew your data, or I can >>> take the time to get the information right. Unfortunately, 99% of the >>> completed Form477 reports that you have received probably have a >>> substantial amount of inaccurate data in them. >>> >>> II can send the inaccurate data that we have, and then you can check us >>> off the list. That is probably what we will end up doing. In reality, we >>> probably won't have a truly accurate report until the next one is due. >>> >>> I would be happy to provide a computer, Internet connection and a quiet >>> room for an FCC intern if you would like to send someone out to >>> participate in the data collection process. I realize that this is not a >>> likely possibility, but I figured it doesn't hurt to make the offer. >>> >>> I really do appreciate the thought process behind collecting this >>> information. I am one of the founding members and past president of >>> WISPA, the Wireless ISP trade association, and we have actively >>> encouraged our members to complete this report and comply with FCC >>> regulations regarding our industry. I want to comply with the data >>> reporting requirements of the Form477 report and will commit as much of >>> my available resources as I can to get the data requested and make sure >>> that it is as accurate as possible. >>> >>> Thank you for your time and consideration, >>> >>> Matt Larsen >>> >>> Vistabeam.com >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> WISPA Wants You! 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