The Application of GIS Tools to Inform Rural Telecom Policy and

Strategies

Oct. 24, 2006Brenda van Gelder

You might be a GIS professional if:

- you hear the words “spatial” and “enterprise” and do not think of Star Trek

- your favorite joke is this knock-knock joke … - you assume that the people around you are yawning

because they are tired

GIS is …

• a computer-based technology composed of hardware, software and data that is used to capture, display and analyze spatial data information. Used in more than 50 countries, GIS technology can create cost-effective and accurate solutions in an expanding range of applications.

• Used for spatial analysis, data collection and analysis of quantitative information

• a visual representation in a geographic context recognizable by a broad range of stakeholders in the policy development and planning processes.

An Influx of New Uses for Geographic Information Systems• A Massachusetts highway worker was charged with a

crime because of a GPS in his snow plow. A Dunkin Donuts employee saw the incident and noted the worker leaving in the vehicle. She reported the incident. The state tracked the vehicle by time and location via the recently installed GPS, and arrested the driver. Local police noted that that's not really what the GPS is for, but alas can be used for such things.

Some Uses of GIS We’ll Discuss

• Origins of legislative activity• Workforce information• Wireless deployment prospects• Design of new infrastructure• Broadband service availability and competition• Assessments of demand for service• Broadband pricing and quality of service• (Inherent in many of these are answers to the question:

are service providers living up to their marketing in rural areas?)

Resources for workforce development• Identifying labor pools• Identifying skill deficiencies• Mapping out training resources

Broadband wireless deployment success and profitability• GIS is exceptionally useful in predicting wireless

coverage areas though line-of-sight analysis.• Line of sight studies take as input the terrain of the area

of interest (using a Digital Elevation Model), and the locations of candidate sites, and can predict the best locations to place towers based on the percentage of the area of interest each tower can “See”.

• Note that line of sight analysis is not a perfect estimator of RF propagation for broadband wireless, as some areas that do not have perfect LOS can sometimes get a signal as a result of wave reflection.

Designing New Infrastructure

• GIS is ideally suited to infrastructure design, allowing highly accurate editing and the ability to display multiple layers of information simultaneously.

• Its primary advantage over traditional CAD packages in this application is the fact that each feature is linked to a database of attributes, allowing the storage, query, and retrieval of a wealth of information.

• The maps that follow illustrate the application of GIS towards fiber-optic network design, in the New River Valley Broadband Initiative.

Analysis of telecommunications service availability and competition• Data for the service areas of local providers of

telecommunications services are often very hard to come by, as they are considered proprietary.

• When providers are cooperative, GIS can be used to inventory assets and identify areas that are well served by several competing providers, and areas that are underserved.

• The state of Kentucky has conducted such an inventory on a statewide scale.

• Smaller-scale initiatives have been conducted for various projects in Virginia (usually at the county or town level)

Assessment of demand for broadband services• GIS has many applications towards demand estimation

for broadband services.• Detailed population density maps can show areas where

there are concentrations of residential subscribers• Landuse patterns and business location maps can show

where business demand is likely to be concentrated.• These maps, when combined with survey and other

data, can help estimate “take rate”

Assessment of broadband pricing and quality of service• The Community Broadband Map tool allows anyone to

report the speed, quality, and pricing of their broadband connection.

Hazards of Using GIS Markers

Other Regions That are Using GIS

• Kentucky http://www.connectkentucky.org/projects/bbexpansion/phase1.htm

• Maine• http://www.maine.gov/newsletter/jan_feb_2005/gis_maps

_broadband_deployment.htm