From Mark_Vanderkloot@hc-sc.gc.ca Sat Jun 19 18:58:29 1999 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id SAA09234 for ; Sat, 19 Jun 1999 18:58:28 -0700 From: Mark_Vanderkloot@hc-sc.gc.ca Received: from hpb.hc-sc.gc.ca (hpb.hc-sc.gc.ca [198.103.237.4]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.06) with ESMTP id SAA12550 for ; Sat, 19 Jun 1999 18:58:27 -0700 Received: from intdns.hwc.ca (intdns.hc-sc.gc.ca [198.103.172.78]) by hpb.hc-sc.gc.ca (8.8.7/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA23201 for ; Sat, 19 Jun 1999 21:58:23 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smta00.hc-sc.gc.ca (smta00.hc-sc.gc.ca [142.4.99.231]) by intdns.hwc.ca (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id VAA15823 for ; Sat, 19 Jun 1999 21:58:21 -0400 (EDT) Received: by smta00.hc-sc.gc.ca(Lotus SMTP MTA v4.6.3 (778.2 1-4-1999)) id 85256796.000A885D ; Sat, 19 Jun 1999 21:55:02 -0400 X-Lotus-FromDomain: HWC To: waphgis@u.washington.edu Message-ID: <85256796.000A86B6.00@smta00.hc-sc.gc.ca> Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 21:58:05 -0400 Subject: Re: Free Zipcodes? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Actually, Canada's Postal Codes change quite often as well - we need updates every 6 months. and they cost much more then $295.00 US - we are looking at about $200.00 per update - assuming that we update every 6 months. If we lapse a period - we pay full price $800.00 and that is just points - no boundaries. We only have boundaries for the first 3 digits of our postal codes eg. K1A 0L2 - we only have boundaries for K1A. The rest of the postal code boundary files that Canada Post has - have indicated that they are confidential information - for some reason.... MARK "Peter H. Van Demark" on 18/06/99 01:15:53 PM Please respond to waphgis@u.washington.edu To: waphgis@u.washington.edu cc: (bcc: Mark Vanderkloot) Subject: Re: Free Zipcodes? Richard: >Where can one find free Zipcodes? Yes ... really! My shop spends quite a lot every >year to get the latest Zipcode boundaries from the usual suspects. And then we can't >give them to anyone without spending a whole lot more. Why should we have to do that? >The USPS must have them ... right? Certainly the Zipcodes are public property. Any >ideas? Wrong. ZIP Codes are not areas, they are lists of addresses. The USPS does not create ZIP Code boundaries, but companies like Geographic Data Technology do. It is not easy, and they charge for it. We sell current ZIP Code boundaries created from the quarterly GDT data, and a big portion of our price ($295 for the whole U.S., boundaries and points) is a license fee to GDT. If you get "free" ZIP Code boundaries, they are most likely 1) older boundaries (we bundle April 1990 boundaries with our products to go with the 1990 census data) 2) a violation of a license agreement I've been a student of postal codes for longer than I'll admit, and I wish that USPS saw ZIP Codes as semi-permanent areas, as in Canada, UK, etc., so they could publish them affordably and we could base research (especially longitudinal research) on them. But they don't. Sorry. Peter ---------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Van Demark Manager of Customer Services Phone: 617-527-4700 Caliper Corporation Fax: 617-527-5113 1172 Beacon Street E-mail: peter@caliper.com Newton MA 02461-9926 Web site: http://www.caliper.com .