Brian, No worries. I don't work for CN at all. I merely peek in through the windows and see what's happening here and there across our country. I see exactly what you are talking about: Great with ArcView, not so much with propagation modeling software. It's like when the public safety departments try to get the radio guys to fix the computers :)
-drew On Aug 4, 2011, at 3:47 PM, Brian Webster wrote: > Drew, > That statement was meant to state that many states (non > connected nation contracts mostly) have the bulk of their experience with GIS > and data companies, not people who have worked in the broadband industry. > When it comes to reviewing data and information collected by some GIS > companies, they typically do not have a good understanding of the value of > various data when looking at the broadband picture in a state. This is not to > say that they lack the skills to map what they have been given and compile it > in to the necessary formats for the NTIA, but what they do lack is the > ability to think outside the box, to work with carriers in a way to minimize > the carriers level of work they need to do to supply good data to the mapping > effort. I have seen many contractors that just can’t deal with anything > outside their form and checkbox system (again, this are not connected nation > contracted states). > > If Connected Nation takes my comments personally please let me state that > this is not an attack on any of their work. These are my observations of > working with other states in conjunction with WISP’s outside the states that > have a contract with Connected Nation. My statement was based on direct > interaction with the state contracts and the WISP’s. In one case it took a > direct intervention from the NTIA to get it worked out with said state. > > Thank You, > Brian Webster > 214 Eggleston Hill Rd. > Cooperstown, NY 13326 > (607) 643-4055 Office > (607) 435-3988 Mobile > (208) 692-1898 Fax > Skype: Radiowebst > www.wirelessmapping.com > www.Broadband-Mapping.com > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Drew Lentz > Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 1:06 PM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: Re: [WISPA] Providing data to NTIA for Broadband mapping? > > I disagree with this: > Most of these mapping contractors are people who do not have any broadband > experience. > > Depending on the group that gets assigned the funding for the mapping > projects (and that is done per state), some of these guys are highly > proficient in doing the data collection. They have decades of experience and > most definitely know what they are doing. > > The only reason I mention this is because part of their toolset does include > pretty sophisticated software, that does in fact have a higher price tag than > RM. I love RM, always have, and have used it for years. But crunching > together WiMax, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc into it simultaneously can be kind of a > hassle; and exporting it and combining it with data from thousands of > locations, just as difficult. > > One process that I am familiar with when it comes to this (at least here in > TX and what one of the WISPs I built went through) went like this: > > 1. Contacted by the mapping agency > 2. The mapping agency asked for coverage maps, if they were available. > 3. Info on tx and rx gear was obtained for signal modeling. > 4. test points were assigned. > 5. Test points were used to gather real-world signal levels. > 6. Maps were created based on tx and rx gear and real-world signal levels. > 7. each one of those newly found maps were sent upstream to state HQ where > they were combined with all the other state maps to create a pretty thorough > database / map > > -d > > On Aug 4, 2011, at 9:19 AM, Brian Webster wrote: > > > Most of these mapping contractors are people who do not have any broadband > experience. > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
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