Below is a brief summary of what data I require to process typical BDC submissions.
Keep in mind, these are generalizations as my process can actually support a wide variety of
data source scenarios.
I do have CSV templates available, but I typically work
with the client to mutate their existing templates into my format.
I require a CSV file of service plan data that includes the following; a unique plan identifier, the account type, the connection technology, and the advertised download and upload throughput of the service plan.
I require a CSV file of customer subscription data that includes one line for each subscription sold. Each line should include the following; full address of service location, unique service plan identifier, account type, and connection technology.
Whether you sell optical of FWLL based services, I require a common form of shape data that defines one or more polygons indicating geographic areas covered by your service. I'm sure this sounds complicated, but it's actually not depending on what tooling you may already use.
Your service plans CSV file should contain one row for each unique service plan you have. See below for a description of fields that should be present in the CSV file.
An asterisk indicates an optional field.
ID:
This field should define a unique identifier that can be
used to match your customer subscriptions to service plans. Whether that's a numeric index
or an ASCII label, just about anything works so long as it's unique across your service plan
data.
COMMENT: *
This field can be used to define an ASCII label for your
service plan. It is not currently used by the process but could be used in the future for
summary reports. In many cases, this field may have an identical value to AUX_PLAN_ID.
TYPE:
This field is used to indicate what account types may
consume this service plan. A value of "R" should be used for residential only
plans, "B" should be used for business / commercial only plans, and "X"
for plans that apply to either account type.
TECH_CODE:
This field is used to indicate what connection technology
this plan is used for. If the plan is used for multiple technologies, choose the best
technology to indicate here. A value of "50" should be used for optical
connections as well as copper Ethernet connections fed by optical trunks. A value of "70"
should be used for unlicensed FWLL such as 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. A value of "71"
should be used for fully licensed FWLL such as 2.5 GHz and 3 GHz PAL holders. A value of
"72" should be used for lightly licensed FWLL such as 3 GHz CBRS GAA users.
TECH_CODES:
This field can be used in place of the aforementioned
"TECH_CODE" field if a service plan is available under multiple technology
codes. Specify multiple tech codes, separated by a comma.
For more information about the various technology codes, see here.
DOWNLOAD:
This field is used to indicate the download throughput limit
of the plan in Mbps (decimal format). Do not include units of measure in this field!
UPLOAD:
This field is used to indicate the upload throughput limit of
the plan in Mbps (decimal format). Do not include units of measure in this field!
Your subscriptions CSV file should contain one row for each Internet service subscription you have. If you have more than one subscription at the same geographic location, it's perfectly okay to report the same address twice in the subscription file, and it will be counted automatically. See below for a description of fields that should be present in the CSV file.
If your OSS is unable to provide a service plan association in the data export, then you may also use the DL_* and UL_* fields below to define throughput information which will then be used to match a plan based on defined limits. If you have a scenario more complicate than this, make sure to reach out to me. My system supports more variations than what is documented here.
An asterisk indicates an optional field.
PLAN_ID: *
This field should define a unique identifier that can be
used to match your subscription to a service plans. The value here should align exactly what
the values defined in the ID field of your service plans CSV file. Otherwise, matching
can be done based on download and upload speeds.
TYPE:
This field is used to indicate what account type this
subscription is. A value of "R" should be used for residential subscriptions and
"B" should be used for business / commercial subscriptions.
TECH_CODE:
This field is used to indicate what connection technology
this subscription uses. A value of "50" should be used for optical connections as
well as copper Ethernet connections fed by optical trunks. A value of "70" should
be used for unlicensed FWLL such as 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. A value of "71" should be
used for fully licensed FWLL such as 2.5 GHz and 3 GHz PAL holders. A value of "72"
should be used for lightly licensed FWLL such as 3 GHz CBRS GAA users.
TECH_CODES:
This field can be used in place of the aforementioned
"TECH_CODE" field if a subscription is serviced simultaneously by multiple
technology codes. Specify multiple tech codes, separated by a comma.
For more information about the various technology codes, see here.
LINE1:
This field is used to provide the first line (street
address) of the subscription service location.
LINE2:
This field is used to provide the second line (unit
information, if any) of the subscription service location.
CITY:
This field is used to provide the city of the
subscription service location.
STATE:
This field is used to provide the state of the
subscription service location.
ZIP:
This field is used to provide the zip code of the
subscription service location.
COUNTRY:
This field is used to provide the country code of the
subscription service location. If this field isn't provided, a value of "US" will
be assumed.
DOWNLOAD: *
This field is used to indicate the download throughput limit
of the subscription in Mbps (decimal format). Do not include units of measure in this field! This
field is only meant to be used if your OSS can't provide some form of service plan
association in the "PLAN_ID" column of this export.
UPLOAD: *
This field is used to indicate the upload throughput limit
of the subscription in Mbps (decimal format). Do not include units of measure in this field! This
field is only meant to be used if your OSS can't provide some form of service plan
association in the "PLAN_ID" column of this export.
Your coverage models should define one or more polygon shapes to indicate which geographic areas are covered by your service. With my system, you can provide one model, or you can provide many which can be associated to different maximum service plan tiers, account types, and connection technologies. The more detailed your coverage models are, the more detailed your resulting submissions will be.
Coverage models are ultimately converted to Shapefile format for use in my system. If you can provide your coverage in that directly, great. If not, I have a tool that can convert many other formats such as KML, KMZ, and geoJSON.
REMEMBER! Just because a piece of software creates a KML/KMZ file, that does not mean that the file actually contains valid coverage data! Modern versions of software such as UISP / ISP Design will create KML files that contain embedded images of a coverage map. This is not an acceptable format for conversion as the coverage must actually be defined as polygon data.
A polygon will be an array of three or more sets of geographic coordinates that define a containing area when all sequentially connected. If you want something to compare your export to, open Google Earth and draw a polygon shape over a map and then export that file as KML. This is a good example of what polygon data looks like.
If you use TowerCoverage or cnHeat, both of those products provide direct exports in the formats needed.
If you provide connectivity via hardline such as optical or copper, then you need to provide coverage data indicating every home that can be connected through the use of containment polygons. Many popular fiber planning tools should be able to provide an export for this.
This data set is only required if you require BDC submission processing services from me.
Your location fabric data is something that you must obtain from CostQuest. This is a fairly simple but tedious process to obtain the data.
Your first step if you haven't already, is to get registered for a support account with CostQuest. Begin by sending an email to nbfsupport@costquest.com with a simple request to setup a tier 2 location fabric license.
CostQuest will guide you the rest of the way through the process on obtaining the data. Once you complete this step, CostQuest will provide a download link to a Zip archive. Please provide me with that download link and not a copy of the extracted files!
Send me an email or give me a call. Let's find out if I can assist you in accomplishing your goals.
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