[snip]
We (the staff of the FCC) knew that the maps and the then "licensee database" (really a big print file) were riddled with errors, and so made all licensees reapply for their licenses (at no cost). The biggest problem was that the latitudes and longitudes were usually in error, sometimes grossly so, and it mattered because we were going to use propagation models running on these newfangled computers to predict actual service areas and required spacings, all in an effort to pack more users into a given geographic area. Crosschecking zipcodes (which were also new then) with latitudes and longitudes helped a lot.
The founding articles on cell phone technology were published at the same time. AT&T was going to implement the technology, but the rest of industry (led by Motorola) appealed to the FCC to stop this, to instead allow unregulated industry to do the job, and this is what happened. Although nobody realized that cell phones would one day displace land lines.
Joe Gwinn