Overview
As a part of the Broadband Data Improvement Act (BDIA), Timmons Group, as a subconsultant to BroadMap, LLC, assisted seven states and territories with data submissions to the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA). This was accomplished through the use of both commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products and custom-built processes and applications. We performed these services for the following states and territories: Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, Mississippi, Guam.
Product Design
Timmons Group designed custom web-based applications to facilitate data collection, verification, and validation of all broadband provider data. The showcase application was the Provider Portal, a secure interactive map that displays the provider’s coverage areas and allows the provider to validate, submit feedback, or request changes. The application was built on the Esri ArcGIS API for Flex and used ArcGIS Server for delivery of spatial data. The portal was created as an easy way for providers to review their coverage footprints and supporting attribution and then confirm whether or not it was an accurate representation.
Quality Assurance
Our team designed custom processes in Python to ensure data quality and data assurance. Data quality reports accompanied quarterly data submissions to the NTIA.
IT System Design
Timmons Group was managed the system infrastructure for hosting web applications, including Windows Server, Linux OS, PGSQL, IIS, MSSQL, etc. Systems were either managed on the client’s infrastructure or in the Rackspace cloud-hosted environment.
GIS Analysis
Using NTIA-defined schema, team members routinely performed data creation, maintenance, and design using input from data providers.
Data Sourcing
Numerous data sources were processed as part of this project. Providers supplied data in various formats. Our team members routinely worked with custom Python scripts to Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) data.
Provider Outreach
Team members were responsible for the outreach and coordination to acquire, build, and update provider data. For each data submission, an email notification was sent to all providers with supporting deliverable dates. The providers mainly used the Provider Portal web application to submit changes to and/or validate their current coverage area(s). In support of the data collection effort, providers that did not respond timely to the outreach were contacted by phone.
Provider Catalog
Timmons Group custom built an application used to manage outreach, correspondence, and data submissions from providers to the project
