September 29, 2009 — The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a Federal Register Notice for the State Broadband Data and Development Program in July, 2009. The program provides grant funding to States for preparation and semi-annual updates of broadband mapping. This notice included requirements for data describing the availability and technical characteristics of broadband services that are inherently spatial. Deliverables are required to be provided in specific formats (ASCII records according to a defined schema or GIS file formats for certain data).

The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) provides a unified voice of the States on geographic information and technology issues, advocates State interests, and supports its membership in their statewide initiatives. The Council actively promotes prudent geospatial information integration and systems development. As such, several NSGIC state representatives formed a workgroup to develop a data model template for ESRI Geodatabase (v 9.3) to support the requirements of the NTIA broadband mapping program.

“NSGIC leadership felt the NTIA Broadband Mapping effort would be most successful if a common data model is used, specifically one with table schemas. It should be noted that this is not the only means to provide the required data to NTIA. The data model is intended to assist states with their data organization and submission.” – Learon Dalby, NSGIC President

The ESRI 9.3.1 Geodatabase model includes metadata and table domains for all required deliverables. The file can be downloaded as a zipfile from the NSGIC Homepage.