aprs.fi and Google Maps API pricing changes

[Heikki Hannikainen]

Hi,

For some time this morning, Google Maps on aprs.fi displayed a pop-up
saying "This page can't load Google Maps correctly". The map tiles
were dark with "For Development Purposes Only" written on them.

This was because of a configuration accident on my part: the aprs.fi
profile on Google Cloud console was not properly linked to the correct
payments profile which has my credit card attached. That's now fixed and
the maps load fine. For a short while.

Due to the volunteer / charitable / non-profit uses in Amateur Radio
circles (SAR, disaster relief, etc) aprs.fi has had a generous free use
limit from Google, even after the pricing went up in 2012. With the recent
pricing model changes for Google Maps APIs, the free use quota got lost.
It was a bit uncertain whether it'll stay there or not, now it's obvious
it's gone.

I'm trying to reach out to them and see if it can be reinstated, or if a
generous volume discount can be applied. If someone has insider Google
contacts who are amateur radio operators, please email me and them in
private.

If not, I might be looking at a bill of 4000-5000€ per month, which
obviously is something that I can't do. The billing has now started, and I
got a small credit for the transition & try-out period, which will last
for a few days, and I can pay the bill for a few more days after that.

To reduce the loads a bit, I'll be disabling the Embedded maps feature
right now.

There is a risk that I'll have to replace Google Maps with something, but
it'll be a development effort which will take quite some time, and the end
result might not be quite as smooth; the Maps API has been pretty great.

- Hessu

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018, Heikki Hannikainen wrote:

> There is a risk that I'll have to replace Google Maps with something, but
> it'll be a development effort which will take quite some time, and the end

> result might not be quite as smooth; the Google Maps API has been pretty
> great.

And before everyone and their dog yells "Hey, just switch to
OpenStreetMaps, you have that already in the menu right?", please note
that:

When you select the "OSM" option from the current aprs.fi menu, it just
tells Google Maps API to download OSM tiles; that does not stop the paid
use of the Google Maps API.

The Google Maps API has provided quite a few things:

* The source map material (vector maps drawn by people and algorithms,
often purchased from other mapping companies)

* PNG map tiles (the source map material drawn and zoomed and rendered as
small PNG image files), these are what are actually downloaded and
displayed in the web browser

* The tile servers run in Google's cloud, which convert the source map
material to the PNG tiles; the web browser downloads the tiles from these
servers, not aprs.fi!

* The Maps API javascript library, which performs the downloading of the
tiles in the browser, zooming and panning functions, and draws things like
APRS symbol graphics on top, and lines between them, when aprs.fi simply
gives sets of geographical coordinates to the library.

* Address search (what are the coordinates for a street address); need to
use something like Geonames for that, but it won't be half as good as
Google's free text address search

From OSM you only get the first one, the source vector map material. You
can't simply download map tiles from their tile server all the time (see
https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/ ).

Then I'll need something like Leaflet to replace the javascript library,
it's some work to convert to that.

Then I'll need to download the tiles from somewhere, either from one of
the free or paid tile servers, or perhaps set up my own tile server, which
takes quite some work and plenty of server capacity to run
(https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/building-a-tile-server-from-packages/
- see below "Import map data" and "Hardware" headlines).

https://switch2osm.org/ describes the process quite well. It's plenty of
work, but I'll have to look into it.

- Hessu, OH7LZB

[Michael Pechner]

I do not know the tax ramifications, but can you accept donations to keep it going?
Or get an organization like the ARRL in the US to take over paying for the service?

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018, Michael Pechner wrote:

> I do not know the tax ramifications, but can you accept donations to keep it going?
> Or get an organization like the ARRL in the US to take over paying for the service?

I could technically sell it to them (and pay VAT for the sales), but I
don't see any organisation like that putting that much money into it, in
the long term anyway. And I'm not sure if it'd be worth it.

- Hessu

[Erik - pa0esh]

Hi Heikki, I have shared your message in Dutch with the ham's here in PA country, and hope they share it again on the socal media, so that the people from Google may see, what good they would do to support this initiative.

The page however, still loaded ok at 15.15 hours.

73's

Erik

Op woensdag 18 juli 2018 11:01:08 UTC+2 schreef Heikki Hannikainen:

[Michael Pechner]

Take direct paypal donations?  Create the US equivalent of a 501 3(c) charitable organization for aprs.fi.

 If ham that uses aprs gave $1/m or more, that would have to cover the costs.

Part of Parachutemobile.com's entertainment value is the APRS data from the skydivers. As a member, I'm willing to make a monthly donation.

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[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2018, Michael Pechner wrote:

> Take direct paypal donations?  Create the US equivalent of a 501 3(c)
> charitable organization for aprs.fi. If ham that uses aprs gave $1/m or
> more, that would have to cover the costs.

I don't see that as a long-term alternative, and it's also a bit difficult
in Finland.

I'll just migrate to Leaflet and try to find a cost effective tile
service. There have been a few offers to provide tile service from a few
places for free.

- Hessu

[Heikki Hannikainen]

Hi,

Here's the current status of aprs.fi, Google Maps API pricing, and
Leaflet/OSM mapping.

As most of you already know, Google bumped up the pricing of the Maps API
significantly this summer, so that aprs.fi would have paid about
4000-5000€ per month to use the fine maps, and assorted services (superb
address search, and a few other goodies). Understandably, that'd be more
than I could pay, and a difficult amount to come up as donations or
subscription fees, every month.

As a contingency plan I made a port of aprs.fi using Leaflet for mapping.
Leaflet can load map tiles from tile servers (or services) which generate
PNG map images from, for example, OSM data. A few individuals and
companies reached out to me and offered to provide access to their tile
servers for PNG OSM maps, either for free, or for a discount. This version
is still running on https://beta.aprs.fi/. It uses Geonames for address
search, which is not that great. Google can actually do proper searching
of street addresses in Finland. OSM maps are better than Google maps in
some places in the world, and less good in others.

At the same time I exchanged several emails and some phone calls with
Google's representatives in the sales support, and eventually in the Maps
API team. Google has some programs for nonprofits, crisis response
organisations, news media and startups, but I'm not eligible for any of
those options, as I'm not a registered nonprofit organisation or a
growth-mode startup with venture capital; I'm a one-man-and-a-cat sized
private limited company, which doesn't make practical profit from the web
site though. It's just easier to do the finances and taxes this way, and
it helps me do some odd consulting jobs sometimes. It's a hobby.

Crisis responder organisations use aprs.fi from time to time in some form,
but they're only eligible for free Maps API for up to two months at a
time.
(https://developers.google.com/maps/billing/understanding-public-programs)

In the end, the good folks at Google figured they still would like to
support aprs.fi. They configured additional monthly credits for my billing
account, so that I won't be charged for the time being, and indicated that
a more permanent process/solution would be figured out later.

As the combination of Google Maps, their reliable tile servers, address
search and street view is pretty good, I plan to keep using it as the
primary solution for the time being.

As the Leaflet variant does work, I plan to keep it available, perhaps at
a more permanent address than the current 'beta'. It's also useful for
running separate service instances for different purposes than APRS.

- Hessu, OH7LZB

[Ray Rischpater]

That's excellent news, and exactly the outcome I think a lot of us were hoping for. Congratulations, and thanks for not throwing in the towel on the project --- it's an important asset for a number of organizations around the world.

73 de KF6GPE

[Una Smith]

Wonderful news! I am one of those emergency response users, an amateur radio operator supporting public safety agencies, and I sometimes use APRS and aprs.fi during incidents. So I thank you for all your hard work on this.

Una, KE5CEP