Mapping New Zealand’s Broadband Infrastructure Sebastian Castro, NZRS Ltd APRICOT Auckland 2016

Some Background

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February 22, 2016

•  Formerly .nz Registry Services •  Provider of:

•  critical Internet infrastructure, and; •  authoritative Internet data

•  Operate the .nz namespace •  Registry functions •  DNS operations

•  Operate public services •  NTP server network •  RPKI validator •  OpenPGP Key Server

NZRS

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Telecommunications in New Zealand

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February 22, 2016

NZ Broadband Penetration

5 Source: OECD Broadband Portal

Household sizes AUS = 2.7 NZ = 2.7 US = 2.6

February 22, 2016

•  2004 TelecomNZ launches first home DSL service 256Kbps 10GB cap.

•  2005 - Government mandates Telecom must wholesale an unbundled bitstream (not UCLL).

•  2006 Comprehensive review of telecommunications, unbundled local loop, structural separation of Telecom.

•  2008/2009 FTTH roll out announced to 75% of the population via the Ultrafast Broadband Programme (UFB)

Key Events

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February 22, 2016

•  2011 Full separation of Telecom into wholesale and retail.

•  2011 Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) rollout begins. xDSL and fixed wireless to the remaining 25% (funded via industry levy).

•  2012 Fibre roll out begins •  2014 Extension of UFB to 80% of population

announced via UFB2 •  2014 Extension and improvement of rural coverage

via RBI2 announced

Key Events

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February 22, 2016

•  Things changing •  Fibre deployment •  Copper cabinet upgrades •  New cellular towers •  New copper cabinets •  Cellular upgrades •  Aggressive wireless deployment by 20-30

regional wireless networks

Information Flux

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February 22, 2016

•  Fibre •  Wireless •  Cable - HFC •  ADSL •  VDSL •  Cellular

Infrastructure Competition

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February 22, 2016

Connection and Usage Growth

10 Source: Chorus Market and Insight

Large ISPs market fibre plans

Netflix and Lightbox offers in the market

February 22, 2016

Changes in Rural Broadband

11 Source: Chorus

February 22, 2016

•  We’ve pulled together a number of geospatial and temporal-spatial data from networks within New Zealand •  Collected some •  Created some •  Curate some •  Augment with other data •  100 + layers •  20-30 used in the National Broadband Map

Broadband Mapping

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February 22, 2016

•  Consumer focussed broadband availability tool •  A data service •  Opportunities for research

•  Technical •  Policy

What do we do with this data?

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National Broadband Map broadbandmap.nz

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February 22, 2016 15

February 22, 2016

Visually Represent Broadband Coverage and Timing

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February 22, 2016

Also provide more meaningful textual Information…

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February 22, 2016 18

February 22, 2016

•  Released July 23 2015 •  New Zealand is small country •  60,000 visits in the first two hours •  173,000 visits to the site since launch •  Lead tech story on major news sites •  ~4500 visits during December 2015 •  ~5500 visits during January 2016

Some interest

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February 22, 2016 20

February 22, 2016

•  AddressFinder •  Geocoding of addresses

•  Koordinates •  Vector query •  Web Map Tile Services (WMTS)

•  NZRS •  Augments Koordinates Data with stuff we know

Various Services

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February 22, 2016

•  Converts an address to an XY coordinate

•  Based off of authoritative NZ address data

•  Accessed via a javascript widget

Address Finder

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February 22, 2016

•  Given a particular coordinate, find if intersects a network we hold data on

•  Data service: https://data.nzrs.net.nz

Point in Polygon Query

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February 22, 2016

•  Multiple networks are available at different points

•  Aggregated at the National Broadband Map by technology •  ADSL •  VDSL •  Fibre •  Wireless •  Cable (HFC)

Lots of Networks to Query

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February 22, 2016

•  From this we can display what is available and;

Networks Available Returned

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•  We can tell leaflet.js to pull tiles in from the tile service

February 22, 2016

Map Tile

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Sourcing the Data

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February 22, 2016

•  Over 20 providers of data •  Data is coverage area, not statistical areas •  We work with the providers to understand the data,

and; •  Help them generate the data if required

The Data

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February 22, 2016

•  Ask nicely. •  Don’t misrepresent the providers. •  Long game

•  It took a good year to get most of them •  Launching broadbandmap.nz increased

enthusiasm to participate. •  Support from industry is very important

How do we get the data?

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February 22, 2016

•  We have helped improve some suppliers data from issues we notice.

•  Lots of eyeballs means a bit more motivation to get things right from some providers.

•  We get better data as a result. •  This will only continue.

Feedback Loops

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Wireless Propagation Data

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February 22, 2016

•  There are a number of wireless networks in New Zealand.

•  Of size 20-30 is a reasonable estimate •  Typically filling a rural and remote niche and

specific applications •  Smaller operations •  Know their networks well •  Communicating coverage has been problematic •  Where coverage does exist it is often in non GIS

formats

Wireless Networks in NZ

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February 22, 2016

•  Converting images geo-referenced with KML to Shapefiles, useful for outputs from: •  RadioMobile •  TowerCoverage.com

•  Generating coverage using elevation data and Longley Rice Prediction Model. •  Wavetrace

A couple of approaches we took

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Wavetrace Longley-Rice based coverage prediction

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February 22, 2016

•  Digital elevation model* •  Network details* •  Latitude* •  Longitude* •  Antenna height above ground level* •  Frequency (MHz)* •  Power (EIRP)* •  Polarisation •  Bearing •  Horizontal beam width •  Vertical beam width •  Antenna downtilt •  Clutter** •  Receive antenna height above ground level**

INPUTS

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*  Mandatory input ** Constant at present

https://github.com/NZRS/wavetrace

February 22, 2016

Wavetrace Output Coverage

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Analysis Examples

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February 22, 2016

•  Finding broadband and broadband blackspots •  Identifying underserved customers •  Informing public policy •  Quantifying availability by bandwidth and

technology

Identifying True Extent of Service

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February 22, 2016

•  You can style geographic data with a simple styling language - CartoCSS

•  It’s supported by many applications and services •  As we have coverage we can style where we don’t

have coverage (broadband blockspots)

Visual Representation

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February 22, 2016 40

Broadband Blockspot Styling Using CartoCSS

February 22, 2016

•  In Taranaki - addresses with wireless but no 5 Mbps+ copper based service

•  How •  Coverage data from

NZRS •  Address points from

LINZ •  PostGIS

Underserved customers

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February 22, 2016

•  The data service was used by regional authorities in New Zealand to respond to central government funding initiatives.

•  Specifically in response to central government funding for FTTH deployment (UFB) and rural broadband extension (RBI).

•  Network coverage could be integrated into their GIS systems.

•  Maps for public consultation could be produced. •  Network providers could be identified.

Public Policy Example

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February 22, 2016

•  From raw data to user friendly application there is a lot of work.

•  Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration - its all about working with people.

•  The data allows analysis and this analysis is not yet fully tapped.

Conclusion

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Contact:

https://www.broadbandmap.nz

bbmap@nzrs.net.nz /broadbandmapnz/ @BroadbandMapNZ

Questions/Comments? Thanks for your time

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