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.
If your users are in a rural area, don't depend on this for too much. (Nothing against this specific service, I'd not heard of it before today, just a general cautionary tale.) We initially sent our data to a WISPA member who was offering geocoding services. He was only able to provide a census tract for about 2/3 of the addresses we sent (which were, admittedly, just dumped right from the billing system with little attempt at standardization). Of those, maybe 3/4 were accurate at first glance. Honestly, there's only so much any database can do with "Rural Route 2," for instance, when that mail route covers 20+ square miles over three census tracts. I'm fortunate that our network is relatively small (there were only about twenty tracts, period, and a decent percentage of our customers are in cities large enough that these computerized geocoders were accurate). Ultimately, I just gave one of the in-house techs some census maps, a customer list, and Google Earth, and said "Saturdays are pretty quiet, good luck, do the best you can." Since we only had a couple weeks between when the FCC released the final version of 477, and when it was due, it was a bit harrowing. I have no doubt there are a few errors in our submission, but we did the best we can with our limited resources and budget. Anyway, the long rambling point of this is that if you have any outside source do this work, you'll want to sanity-check it before sending it in. David Smith MVN.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
