Hi,
I feel like we had this topic (even with Abdullah @ IPinfo) some months ago.
Yes, that is why I am here. To ensure our data is accurately represented and ASNs and ISPs are happy with how we report our geolocation data for their prefixes. After our last interaction at NANOG, I check all conversations in the community daily to ensure no ASN or ISP feels unheard by us. I am always happy to serve the community.
I don't care how many points around the Internet you can measure RTT from, you're not going to accurately guess IP Geo from RTT down to the DMA. As a FTTH ISP, that's the level of accuracy our customers demand, i.e. so that if they're getting live TV from an over the Internet provider like Hulu Live, they get the right local channel lineup.
Active measurement on a global scale of the Internet is the best way we can identify the real location of an IP address. An IP address geolocation provider needs to tell where an IP address is located. They are not supposed to be a data parsing service that points to where a geofeed points to. Our goal is simply to point to the real location of an IP address, not a perceived/reported location. We are not against geofeed; we respect geofeed and ingest geofeed. However, geofeed does not inherently have verification or evidence of truth. ASNs are not responsible for providing accurate or even truthful locations of the IP addresses they operate. If they can point the locations of IP addresses in random locations, what is the value of an IP address location service? We try our best to be accurate. And we do not have enough data to backup our location reporting, we will use geofeed data. *Hulu is not our customer (01/28/2026 - 10:44:02 UTC)* I am using them as a metaphor. If Hulu is our customer and your customer is complaining about IP geolocation, it is neither your responsibility nor Hulu's responsibility to fix the issue. It is our data, and we have to back it up. We are responsible for the end-user quality of internet experience. The reason I am here is because of this. I understand and respect you standing behind your customers, but the reality is that many organizations does not have a geofeed or even bother to maintain it properly. But that does not excuse negligence on our part, as enterprises are paying us for our location data service. Any company that uses our data expects us to provide accurate location data. We will talk to your customers to ensure we provide accurate location data for them. It would be incredibly helpful if you support us with a geofeed or hosting a probe server (which is a service we will buy from you), but that is entirely voluntary and optional. We would be grateful for your help, but it is not mandatory for you as an ISP to provide accurate geofeed reporting. But at the end of the day, we are selling a service to Hulu, and Hulu's customers are impacted. The idea is simple: accountability. There is no jumping between support desks when you want to watch the game. You talk to one support team that is providing the geolocation data. The reality is that we are not the largest company in the industry. The legacy provider, for years, has provided a consistently bad user experience that we just cannot shake off because we are part of the industry. We are actively present everywhere, addressing issues head-on, and our customers and end users rarely have complaints about our data or service. Even when they have complaints about us, we try our absolute best to resolve them. Our operations are quite solid. Our presence is solid, and that is why we do not have many complaints, and everyone seems to be generally satisfied. If you have IPinfo-specific complaints, let me know. General industry complaints are something that does not apply to us. — Abdullah | DevRel, IPinfo