Keenwire is a leading engineering and project management firm specializing in wireless broadband. From CenturyLink, to Homeland Security, to Local ISPs, Keenwire has been fortunate to provide many levels of broadband consulting to a wide array of clients. Some examples of other community network projects include:
Town of Vail, Colorado
The most outstanding example of rapid turnkey deployments by our team members still operates today in Vail, Colorado. This municipal Wi-Fi project was awarded to CenturyTel due to a winning RFP response authored by one of our members. Contract negotiations took 5 months and dug deeply into the deployment time, with the final award in August 2006 there were only 4 months remaining until the snow fell and the winter tourism season would begin in November. The complete project was designed, permitted, deployed and tested within 4 months – over 350 network devices were deployed, which included a self-healing, multi-source, wireless backbone and 100 custom-fabricated mounts. The deployment was completed two weeks prior to deadline. Most municipal Wi-Fi networks have been dismantled to-date, except this one. The Town of Vail continues to use the network for both municipal access as well as public safety, and CenturyTel continues to see revenues from end-users on the system.
North Florida Broadband Authority
NFBA is an excellent example of how we work with our clients and how our full range of services can be leveraged for increased success on any broadband project. Our involvement actually began before the NFBA was formed; we worked side-by-side with Government Services Group (GSG) in Tallahassee, FL in responding to a feasibility study RFP by the regional economic development partnership group for on the availability and impact of broadband. That RFP was awarded to GSG, providing the foundation on which to found the NFBA for the purpose of applying for broadband stimulus.
Our team was integral from before day one, working to found the business concept, financial and service models, identify key partnerships, design and engineer the network, engage vendors and gather costs, determine a deployment plan and pull it together as a long-term operational entity. Every core service we offer and every knowledge element Keenwire possesses from our last decade in broadband was put into forming the NFBA and the grant application. Additional elements such as GIS mapping analysis for demographic, broadband and environmental metrics were engaged, even down to the census block level.
Keenwire worked on the grueling due diligence phase as well. This included long weekends and short holidays over December to fulfill the demands of the NTIA team lead. These team leads were also working long hours and made multiple requests per day for nearly two weeks. Keenwire and GSG typically provided a response within one day to questions ranging from the capital expenses, financial model, depreciation, capital leases, critical facilities, demographic metrics, environmental, historic, deployment, partners and even community support.
NFBA officially completed the due diligence phase in early January and was subsequently awarded $30M. It was inspiring to NFBA to see that when the Round Two NOFAs were released, the NFBA project fit snugly into the revised program rules – ratifying that the strategy and concept on which the project was founded was spot-on and further that the NFBA should be perfectly positioned for an award in Round One.
Rivada Sea Lion
Keenwire was proud to have assisted Rivada Sea Lion through the rigorous Round 1 BIP grant application process in early 2009. The company competed for selection among 2,200 US applicants and was announced as part of an initial group of 19 awardees under this particular phase of the US Department of Agriculture’s RUS Grant Program.
Rivada was successfully awarded a $31M grant as part of a winning Last Mile Proposal under USDA BIP Round 1 to provide service to 90,000 square miles of Southwestern Alaska. They also applied for a Round 2 Grant to leverage that award to now expand service out to other Native Tribal areas all around Alaska (called the Service Aimed Broadband Rural Expansion –– SABRE – Phase II BIP Grant number 5056).
Rivada Sea Lion was selected to deliver unprecedented low cost, high speed broadband and Public Safety Interoperability to 53 technology-challenged communities of Southwestern Alaska. The project is designed to dramatically enhance service to community centers, schools, medical clinics and Public Safety organizations. The project will involve a unique combination of wireless technologies to cope with the harsh climatic conditions of Alaska while delivering leading edge connectivity.
In Round 1 of the ARRA Grant, Rivada Sea Lion developed a comprehensive plan to deliver high-speed Internet service to 53 remote villages and communities in Southwestern Alaska. This plan was focused on the creation of new jobs and opportunities for the residents of these un-served areas of Alaska. The solution is a proven hybrid wireless solution already in use in Civil and Federal Public Safety applications around the country. Rivada Sea Lion uses dedicated Satellite service to targeted key base stations and then delivers high-speed Internet service out to the rural areas using IEEE 802.16 (WiMax) and IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) technologies.
Oregon Broadband Initiative
The executive team of Keenwire has put its mission to work in our own backyard. Our executives formed Greenwire Broadband and the Oregon Broadband Initiative.
The Oregon Broadband Initiative (OBI) will provide the first ever ubiquitous middle-mile broadband Internet backbone to un-served and underserved communities in rural Oregon. The proposed funded service area spans over 91% of Oregon’s land area (28 rural counties) and 41% of the population which includes 183 Census Designated Places (CDP) and 813 populated places plus additional populations in rural areas of “metro” Oregon counties. GIS analysis results in coverage of 2,100 critical and/or core community facilities while passing 541,145 households and 1.36 million people across 87,359 square miles (see methodology for details). Based on Whitehouse stimulus job calculation formulas, this project is slated to create 1,700 direct and indirect jobs for Oregon.
OBI will deliver affordable, reliable ubiquitous wholesale middle-mile broadband at fiber-like bandwidths up to and exceeding 300Mbps. High bandwidth service plans for middle-mile connections will be available to the public and private sectors begin at 10Mbps with the potential up to scale over 1Gbps in certain areas. Public entities will receive a typical 50% discount on services, as well as the ability to provide suitable in-kind contributions to the expansion of OBI initiatives. In addition we have committed to providing free lifetime Internet to all 95 public libraries across the PFSA starting at 100Mbps and continuing to grow as the Internet grows. We see libraries and community colleges as vital to this nation’s future.
Greenwire has garnered exceptional support from the Oregon Coastal Zone touting our founders and team in our Round Two grant application for statewide Oregon ($189M) grant. Our clients and partners believe in us to such an extent that they endorsed our statewide initiative, which we started 6 weeks prior to deadline and ended up with support from nearly every legislator in Oregon, half the counties, all libraries, schools and emergency management for over 180 substantial letters of support.
Tribes
Keenwire has developed relationships with many tribes in the Pacific Northwest. Our trust and allegiance to tribal nations has produced valued relationships that will continue to grow. We currently assist tribal communities in bringing broadband access to those who need it, some of whom remain completely un-served by telecommunications services.
Broadband wireless is an excellent option for the often unique service requirements for tribes, as it provides:
- Advanced telecommunications services – high speed Internet and multi-line telephony service through the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
- Coverage of not just a select portion of Tribal Land, but coverage of an entire area of need and the ability to offer services to all residents
Keenwire advises tribes on technologies, system architectures, and vendors, as well as assists in construction, training of local personnel in operating, maintaining, and extending the system, and the many other aspects of building a truly advanced broadband wireless telecommunications system.
