Introduction

The National Broadband Map is capable of displaying geometries on top of the Google Maps.  These geometries are displayed by the overlay of tiles on the map base which are generated from shapefiles.  Operationally the process of uploading and including shapefiles on the National Broadband Map is simple.  The mapping application only takes shapefiles as its input for representing network supply.

 

The following applies to networks who wish to provide information to the National Broadband Map.

 

  1. Coverage must be in Shapefile format.
  2. Coverage should be in WGS84 (EPSG:4326) - there is some ability to take shapefiles in NZMG and NZTM.
  3. Coverage should provide a realistic and honest representation of Broadband coverage.

 

Broadband coverage is loosely defined but it is expected that services should provide more

than 512 Kbps download speed.

Creation and Conversion of Shapefiles

Shapefiles are normally created within specialist GIS Packages such as the ESRI range of products.  There are other tools available that can help with creation and conversion of files.

 

  • ogr2ogr - a set of command line utilities than can convert between file formats
  • zonums.com - some online tools for the conversion of file types

 

Google Earth has been used for the creation of coverage maps by some providers, however outputs from Google Earth cannot be used as inputs for the National Broadband Map without conversion to shapefiles.   KML is the standard output from Google Earth and zonums.com has some online conversion tools.   KML should apply only to lines and polygons.

While the tools listed above have been used by others in preparation of data for the National Broadband Map this does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by MED.