+my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;
+$ua->agent('Freeside/'. $FS::VERSION); #libwww* elicits "403 Forbidden"
+my $res = $ua->get($url);
+
+my $return = '';
+if ( $res->is_success ) {
+ $return = $res->decoded_content;
+} else {
+ #better error handling? well, hopefully the site is reliable enough
+ warn 'Error from geo.fcc.gov: '. $res->status_line. "\n";
+}