Broadband Data Collection

BROADBAND PLANNING MAP (REQUIRES NO SPECIAL GIS SKILLS)

The Broadband Planning Map Tool has a large collection of map layers with a rich set of broadband, demographic, and spatial analysis tools to help providers and community planners make better broadband decisions for their community.

The central idea behind the project was to create a set of tools that would help a planner identify their study area, find all combinations of Broadband Providers, Service Types and Advertised Download/Upload speeds, and quickly chart out the general and student populations, housing, and community-anchor-institution data showing the potential for broadband demand aggregation and providing the data to support businesses cases for investment in new broadband infrastructure to schools and communities.

What makes our Community Planning Map unique is the power and flexibility it gives users to perform Spatial Analysis. For example, users can perform a Spatial Search to find all the Libraries within a specific Zip code or given community by name. Subsequently, a 2-mile buffer could be drawn around one of the Libraries identified to find all the public schools that fall within that 2-mile radius.

The Advertised Upload and Download Broadband Speeds and Service Types to these schools can then be instantly charted. Further, all the Census Blocks falling within this 2-mile buffer can be selected and their attributes can be exported to a spreadsheet. Users can easily determine the number of people living within 2 miles of a Library; find their average median age, the total number of households, etc.

All of Arizona’s Broadband Providers and their associated metrics can be easily viewed and the results saved as an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. A Community Planner can readily measure the area and perimeter of their community, find the distance from the nearest Central Office or a major road or highway, and quickly view the broadband footprints of every provider in the vicinity.

ARIZONA BROADBAND ASSESSMENT PROJECT (AZ BAP) REPORTS

AZ BAP Methodology White Paper for Fall 2014
This publication covers the overall status, process and outcomes of the mapping project. It also includes brief summaries of state and regional policy activities.
 

Dear Public Safety Stakeholder,

My name is Scott Neal and I am a Communications Consultant working for Mission Critical Partners, Inc. (MCP).  MCP has been hired by the Digital Arizona Public Safety Broadband planning team to assist in the planning efforts for the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN).  The NPSBN is being constructed by the First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet) as mandated by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.  Lt. Col.  Timothy Chung has been designated by Governor Doug Ducey to serve as the single point of contact for coordinating the planning efforts between Arizona and FirstNet.

If there are any questions or other issues concerning this matter, please contact me at this email, or by voice at the numbers below.  On behalf of the Arizona NPSBN planning team, we would like to thank you for your assistance in planning the construction of this critical public safety communications tool in Arizona.

In September 2016, the State of Arizona submitted to FirstNet an updated data collection report containing additional data collected from Arizona public safety agencies.  Although the additional data will not be used in the federal RFP process, the data is valuable to Arizona and will help the state evaluate the state plan when presented to the Governor.

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) released the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) in the Western Region of the United States (Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington).

FirstNet’s mission is to ensure the building, operation, and maintenance of the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network for public safety. The NPSBN is intended to enhance the ability of the public safety community to perform more reliably, effectively, and safely; increase situational awareness during an emergency; and improve the ability of the public safety community to effectively engage in those critical activities. The Draft PEIS analyzes potential impacts of the deployment and operation of the NPSBN on the natural and human environment, in accordance with FirstNet’s responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Why is the Data Collection / Survey So Important?

The state of Arizona is currently in the planning process for the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN).  The nationwide effort is being conducted under the guidance of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet).  The ultimate objective of the project is to construct a nationwide broadband network on the long-term evolution (LTE) platform that will be dedicated to public safety first responders and supporting entities for access to mission-critical data.  The project was initiated with the enactment of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act in February 2012.  For more information, please visit the FirstNet website at www.firstnet.gov.

A critical part of the planning effort involves the collection of data from the public safety community.  The data we are looking for includes agency type, number of employees, number of current data devices, current types of wireless service, and current and desired future data applications, among other elements.  We have developed an online survey to collect the data.  We request that you have the appropriate person in your agency complete the survey so we can include your data in the planning efforts.