[Geocoding] Usage policy, OpenGTS and number of requests

[Sarah Hoffmann]

Hi,

On Thu, Feb 05, 2015 at 05:19:21PM +1100, PROJECTS | RECiPHER Group wrote:
> I hope this is the right place for this kind of question.
> So I plan to use openGTS with Nominatim. I've already tested it with a
> tracked phone and it works OK.
> 
> The intention is to use with with more tracked devices, maybe ~10, for
> example.
> I'm afraid of passing over the limit of 1 request/s.
> 
> What happens when my account tries to send more requests than the
> permitted? Is my email blocked or something like that?
> I would like to limit my requests to fit the requirements in OpenGTS. Does
> anyone know whether this is possible?
> Does anyone know approximately the number of tracked devices that is
> possible to use  following the policy? (just 1 or more?)

Thank you for checking with us first.

The latest version of openGTS defaults to using the Nominatim instance
from MapQuest[1], as far as I know. So you should ask in their forums[2]
about the exact limitations. They are a bit more liberal than osm.org
in their usage policy.

Regarding use with nominatim.osm.org, openGTS is currently blocked because
of multiple cases of massive overuse of our server. As a general rule,
reverse geocoding for tracking devices is unlikely to comply with our
usage policy unless you have very, very few devices or a very large
query interval, or your software uses heavy caching on the client-side.

Kind regards

Sarah
(part of the OSM sysadmin team)

[1] http://open.mapquestapi.com/nominatim/v1/search.php
[2] http://developer.mapquest.com/web/info/forums