BroadbandFabric Locations

How CostQuest Identifies Broadband Serviceable Locations

To get pinpoint accuracy for all locations, CostQuest categorizes as Broadband Serviceable Locations; the team aggregates hundreds of millions of data points, applies statistical scoring, and managed crowdsourcing to identify the precise locations of virtually every structure that is a candidate for broadband.

Step 1: Start with a Geographic Frame of Reference

When looking for Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs), CostQuest starts by obtaining rich geospatial information across all 50 states and territories to create a geographic frame of reference to start the analysis. CostQuest uses parcel information to create the geographic frame of reference, or the “sandbox” to work from, to provide boundaries of where to look for a structure/building within a piece of geography. CostQuest then ties in additional data sources to further the team’s understanding of the land and building use within each geographic frame.

The red lines represent geographic frames of reference a.k.a. parcel boundaries.

Step 2: Link County Tax Assessor Information

County Tax Assessor attributes provide more details about a piece of geography – what it is used for, the address, the value of the property and any building on it, and more. By analyzing the tax attributes of each geographic frame of reference, CostQuest can isolate characteristics at a location level. Statistical scoring is used to systematically consider each attribute to answer a question: is this piece of geography likely to contain a structure that may require broadband service or a technical term CostQuest calls a Fabric Active structure?

Step 3: Connect Geographic Frames and Tax Assessor Information with Building Footprints

CostQuest then uses building footprints to look at all the possible buildings within each geographic frame of reference. These footprints give CostQuest the geospatial coordinates of each structure on that individual piece of property.

What CostQuest derives from the tax assessor attributes is then compared to what is seen in the building footprints. Rooftop detail, size, and building shape help us determine which building is the likely point where broadband service will be accessed. The structures are visually identified and assessed for confidence.

The red-shaded shapes above each location structure represent the building footprint.

Step 4: Connect other data sources

A. CostQuests connects additional data sources using a universal location identifier tied to each Broadband Serviceable Location to help inform the model as to which location structures are candidates for broadband. The data sources are updated semi-annually. All the data sources include:

• Parcels​
• Satellite Imagery ​
• Commercial building footprints​
• Tax Attributes​
• Address datasets​
• Road Segments​
• US Census

B. More data can be linked to the locations to learn more about specific areas of interest. For example, broadband service availability, deployment cost information, federally funded locations, build complexity, demographics, and the competitive landscape.

Step 5: Identify Broadband Serviceable Locations

Final Result: Using conditional logic, CostQuest sets rules that connect building footprints from aerial imagery, tax attributes, road segments, U.S. Census, parcels, addresses, land cover data, and more to pinpoint and display the precise coordinates of each Broadband Serviceable Location (structure) that is the likely point where broadband service will be accessed.

The circled locations with a green dot represent the identified Broadband Serviceable Location in each geographic frame of reference.

Step 6: Human Visual Verification

Visual verification is an internal process CostQuest uses to have human beings review locations that our models aren’t confident in. This step is critical in adding human oversight to improve machine learning in selecting the appropriate location structure within a geographic frame.

The circled locations with a green dot and check represent the identified and visually verified Broadband Serviceable Location in each geographic frame of reference.

Custom data you can add on

Your complete location guide for essential business operations

You can leverage the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric data to support a multitude of business functions, such as building a broadband availability map, informing network plans, designs, financial modeling, managing a broadband program, funding determinations, opportunity assessments, regulatory filings, aligning billing systems, and more. What the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric data looks like in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The green points represent Broadband Serviceable Locations.