[Bus. Ops] 477 Changes in Wireless Service Providers http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20672728 en Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:53:26 EDT Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:53:26 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20983006 Rhaas :
said by Keithb See Profile :

I just got a notice that the FCC 477 is due soon, and it's the same form as last year. I see no mention about Geocode, etc. We have our own ESRI ArcGIS mapping system for our utility lines so I suppose we could use that to pin point each location.
These Form 477 changes are scheduled to take effect with the filing of 2008 year-end data, due March 1 2009.

The form you are filling out now is for last period, you should see the change I believe on the next filing.

* - There has been motions filed with the FCC that requiring customer count per census tract will be too difficult to manage/determine. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20983006 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:37:33 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20981268 Book : Interesting,

Since most of our customers are on a 0 Committed Information Rate plan, I foresee a whole lot of 0's on the form which I'm sure the FCC won't like. I think reporting burstable rates opens me up to too much liability.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20981268 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:20:15 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20979488 marigolds : Ah, just read the original post.
The changes will not take effect until the end of the year filings.

It's still not trivial to assign census tracts to any addresses that are new since 2007 (the last time TIGER geometry was updated).]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20979488 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:39:29 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20979347 Keithb : There's no mention of it. It only requests the zip codes that your subscribers are in.

»www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form477/477.xls]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20979347 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:17:04 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20979107 marigolds : Does it mention reporting by census tract?
Since census tracts do not conform to any postal boundaries, it is going to be hard to do without geocoding.
(Geocoding = assigning a geographic location to a record; converting an address into a coordinate is only one form of geocoding. For example, if you take your list of customers and put a dot on a map where you think they are approximately, that's geocoding too.)
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Geographic Information Science researcher]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20979107 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:31:16 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20978730 Keithb : Should we even have to do this since it's not mentioned though?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20978730 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:21:18 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20978607 marigolds : If you have arcgis desktop (I think ArcView should work, but you may need ArcEditor):

Geocode your subscriber locations in whatever manner you want. Make sure you are using a point geometry layer and not line or polygon to represent your customers. Aggregation by Zip Code, in particular, will not work because Zip Codes do not conform to census tract boundaries.

To this point geometry file, add attribute fields you are required to report (technology type, speed, access to internet, residential/commercial, etc.). I would highly recommend using a domain for these values rather than a text field, but if you are not familiar with setting up attribute domains in ArcGIS (which requires using a geodatabase instead of a shapefile), you may not want to try that.
Go here and download the correct TIGER files:
»www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgr···007.html
(Although there is a geocode file available for TIGER, use this as a last resort for geocoding.)
Add the appropriate TIGERline shapefile to a new map project with your geocoded customer locations.

I would recommend running one county at a time if possible. If it is not possible, use the Merge tool to merge the shapefiles together first.
This is located in ArcToolbox at Data Management>General.
Your input is each of the individual county shapefiles. If you are using a geodatabase to store your customer informatin, output should be to a feature class in the same geodatabase. Otherwise, use a shapefile. Keep the new name under 8 characters. Use the default Field Map.

Run the Identity tool in ArcToolbox under the Analysis Tools>Overlay toolbox.
Input Features: Your geocoded customers layer
Identity Features: The TIGERline census tracts
Output Feature Class: Output to the origin geodatabase if your customers are in a geodatabase feature class; otherwise output to a shapefile. If using a shapefile, keep the name under 8 characters.
Attributes: Leave at the default ALL
XY Tolerance:
Check this list:
»www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgr···taip.txt
If any of your counties are on this list, use a value of 2.75 meters. Otherwise leave blank.

The resulting feature class will contain all of your customers with a field for the census tract in which they reside. If you used a shapefile, the .dbf portion of that shapefile is a Dbase IV file with all of the attribute information. Import this into your appropriate reporting software.
If you used a geodatabase, you can either access the table directly in Microsoft Access (personal geodatabase), in Sql Server Express (Workgroup SDE), or in your DBMS (enterprise SDE/ArcGIS Server Basic); or for a file geodatabase to you can export to an appropriate format (browse to the correct table in ArcCatalog and right click to export).

Hope that helps!
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Geographic Information Science researcher]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20978607 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:53:33 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20978411 Keithb : I just got a notice that the FCC 477 is due soon, and it's the same form as last year. I see no mention about Geocode, etc. We have our own ESRI ArcGIS mapping system for our utility lines so I suppose we could use that to pin point each location.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20978411 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:14:47 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20753040 marigolds : Obviously you have to pay for these services:
»www.esri.com/software/arcwebserv···dex.html
But those are among the best you are going to find.
My recommendation would be to break down the customers by county and then ask the counties to geocode them for you using the 911 geocode system. Go through the planning department and offer to allow them to keep the aggregate results when you are done (I would suggest by census block). That will protect you from Sunshine Law issues and possibly get you all the geocoding you need for free.

The reason for the shift from Zip Code is that zip codes are a changing unit with no compiled demographic information. They are essentially worthless when you want to relate back to demographic factors and impacts on health, economy, etc.
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Geographic Information Science researcher]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20753040 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:00:48 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20738125 mogooder : If you are looking for Lat / Long try this.

»geocoder.us/

This is another one for bulk coding.

»www.batchgeocode.com/

mogooder
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"The Secret is in the RITHMATIC" Henry Hudson]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20738125 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:04:08 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20736980 VariableARK : That does work well, now if only it gave the lat long I would be in business!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20736980 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:16:20 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20733768 mogooder : An Alternate is here.

»www.ffiec.gov/Geocode/default.aspx

mogooder
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"The Secret is in the RITHMATIC" Henry Hudson]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20733768 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:41:22 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20730520 Rhaas : Under the 'go' button is the link to change it to an address search. After searching the info will be just to the left on the address form boxes.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20730520 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:23:46 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20727918 VariableARK : Thats doesn't seem to lead to an address search, just a fact finder on a given area.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20727918 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:36:10 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20704326 mogooder : In the paper work that I have read, the tract coding will be by all connections, res and bus, there will be a seperate place in the new 477 (that has not been released)where you will enter a percentage of Residential by state not by tract code. We'll see. :D

Frank
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"The Secret is in the RITHMATIC" Henry Hudson]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20704326 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:47:46 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20703988 Rhaas : No, I believe the 477 data is all connections.
»www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form477/477.xls]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20703988 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:33:04 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20703514 Air WAV : Is this just for residential users?
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]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20703514 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:08:15 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20701963 Rhaas : A link to find the census tract via the address: »factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SA···&_ci_nbr]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20701963 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:03:41 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20679510 VariableARK : If the GOV opens up a free ACCURATE geocode (google is a terrible geocoding service) then I actually think I figured out how to do this. I worked on some initial code tonight.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20679510 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:50:29 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20679432 mogooder : An easy method to geocode your info is being worked on however, we are waiting on the new 477.xls to be released by the FCC. At last check it was in July / August.

Frank
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"The Secret is in the RITHMATIC" Henry Hudson]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20679432 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:22:34 EDT Re: [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20679368 VariableARK : How are we to determine what tract our customers are in, I tried using the census website to check some addresses and it works on everything, BUT for new addresses, it just says address not available.

This sounds like a waste of everyone's time. I sure do love regulation!]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20679368 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:02:01 EDT [Bus. Ops] 477 Changes http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20672728 Rhaas : FCC Mandates Broadband Reporting Changes

Three months after approving significant changes in the reporting requirements for broadband subscribership, the FCC finally released its order amending the Form 477. Instead of reporting subscribers by ZIP Code, broadband providers will be required to report the number of broadband connections by Census Tracts. Additionally, providers must categorize subscribers based on the technology and speeds of the broadband connection. Wireless carriers are required to report the number subscribers whose plans allow them to access the Internet. Interconnected VoIP providers are required to report information about the number of subscribers, the percentage of residential subscribers, types of broadband connections and whether VoIP service must be used over a single predetermined broadband connection or can be used over any broadband connection. The FCC claims that these changes will "greatly improve its ability to understand the extent of broadband deployment." These Form 477 changes are scheduled to take effect with the filing of 2008 year-end data, due March 1 2009.

Facilities-based broadband providers are to report the number of connections that they have in service to households and businesses in each of the Census Tracts in which they operate. Providers are to supply, in a standardized database format, the number of subscribers in each Census Tract, broken down by technology type and upload and download speed. Mobile wireless broadband service providers are required to report the Census Tracts that best represent their broadband service footprint for each of the speed tiers in which they offer service. Broadband providers must report both download and upload transfer rates in the following speed tiers: (1) greater than 200 kbps but less than 768 kbps; (2) equal to or greater than 768 kbps but less than 1.5 mbps; (3) equal to or greater than 1.5 mbps but less than 3.0 mbps; (4) equal to or greater than 3.0 mbps but less than 6.0 mbps, (5) equal to or greater than 6.0 mbps but less than 10.0 mbps; (6) equal to or greater than 10.0 mbps but less than 25.0 mbps; (7) equal to or greater than 25.0 mbps but less than 100.0 mbps; and (8) equal to or greater than 100 mbps. The FCC will continue to require providers to report connections with download transfer rates above 200 kbps and upload speeds of less than or equal to 200 kbps, because "upload services in this category continue to be a common offering in the broadband services market."

The FCC also released a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) with its order seeking comment on the following issues: 1) whether the Form 477 data should be used to develop a detailed nationwide broadband availability map, 2) how to effectively capture information about actual delivered speeds of broadband Internet access services and pricing of broadband services, 3) how to preserve the confidentiality of the information collected on the Form 477, 4) whether LECs should report the number of voice telephone service connections at the ZIP Code or Census Tract level instead of at the state level, and 5) whether the FCC should conduct consumer broadband surveys. The FCC has established an expedited comment cycle with the goal of releasing an order within four months.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,20672728 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:06:08 EDT