Information on North Carolina’s Broadband Mapping Grant from NTIA
On October 5, the e-NC Authority was awarded a grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce under the State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. This grant program enables states to collect comprehensive and accurate broadband data and develop state-level broadband maps, with these efforts aimed to aid in the development and maintenance of a national broadband map.
The data collection and mapping process to be conducted by the e-NC Authority for this project, and outlined in the proposal submitted to NTIA, requires the collection of data using multiple methods:
Collecting data directly from broadband service providers
Collecting provider data through a national data corporation using Web crawling techniques
Collecting broadband consumer data at the local level
Conducting radio wave propagation prediction modeling (using GIS) to look at wireless coverage
Conducting surveys of citizens to look at broadband availability
Conducting a survey to assess broadband use among institutions and households in North Carolina
The grant also funds broadband planning. Much of the mapping and planning work will be conducted in-house by staff of the e-NC Authority. However, the e-NC Authority has some contracted services for the grant that were chosen after a competitive request for proposals.
