The South Carolina Broadband Authority said it has streamlined the deployment and management of broadband infrastructure projects across the state by integrating geographic information system data.
James Tanis, senior geospatial data scientist for the state Broadband Office, said Thursday that by developing an extensive geospatial data warehouse, Broadband Office personnel will be able to help communities across the state that lack reliable internet connectivity. funding can be better identified and prioritized. Webinar sponsored by the National Geographical Information Council.
“When we started, we [internet service providers] Once applied, please return your GIS data. After sitting down for a while, we thought it would be a good idea to standardize the GIS data coming to us. Otherwise, you'll end up with a ton of sloppy or miscellaneous data. Everyone who applies,” Tanis said.
The Department has created a template GIS dataset, a data dictionary, and a dictionary for all South Carolina Broadband Office template files that instruct applicants how to present their data when applying for grant projects. He also said his office has eliminated fillable PDFs for grant applications, and he has adopted Excel forms to more efficiently convert data into a usable format.
“You can use formulas, graph data as it comes in, score it right away, and get the specific fields you need,” Tanis says. “We ended up saving the data in Excel instead of pulling it out of the PDF file.”
Once the office has reviewed all applications, the census block's GIS data will be published online as an interactive map to aid public viewing and awareness of the application.
The map also allows the broadband office to more easily score projects, Tanis said, since internet service providers include information about line work, census blocks and network junctions. Once a project is selected for an award, the Broadband Office will provide a separate document containing the grant agreement and a table containing GIS statistics such as the number of eligible service locations served, miles of transmission line work, and percentage of aerial work or work. Create a map of underground.
As the project gets underway, the Broadband Office continues to use GIS data to monitor work in real time, he said.
“What we thought was, why not require ISPs to submit geotagged construction photos and geotagged speed test photos in their quarterly reports?” Tanis said. , noted that the report also includes details such as the number of homes passed, how many miles of fiber were installed and the project schedule.
GIS data is also used to complete projects with ISPs, including proof of work on maps and completion checklists that track details such as the number of homes and businesses passed and how many miles of fiber were installed. You can also create .
“With all of this and the data that we had while monitoring the project…we are confident at this point that they built the project to the specifications we asked for and built it where they said they would build it. So at this point it's time to pay them,” Tanis said.
One new area in which the department has incorporated GIS data is the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program challenge portal. Each state had the option of building its own portal or purchasing one from a company. South Carolina chose to build the portal in-house, modeled after a similar process it had already developed for its broadband grant award process.
The portal includes a map of BEAD-eligible service locations across the state. People and organizations can submit challenges through an online survey form and discuss whether their region is actually serving them.
