Florida Rural Broadband Alliance
Before FRBA was formed there were two separate economic development regions who had applied for grants separately in Round One but did not receive an award, while their Round Two application had the incumbent carrier pull out of the partnership right before the deadline. With our leadership and guidance under somewhat of a sister project to NFBA, the Alliance was formed and a grant application submitted in Round Two within a matter of weeks. This resulted in a grant award of $26 million for the 15 counties (8+7) between the “panhandle” and “heartland” regions of “critical economic concern” as designated by the governor. As with the NFBA project below, Keenwire contributed knowledge and experience in business, technology and policy to shape a successful grant application.
North Florida Broadband Authority
Our involvement actually began before the NFBA was formed; we partnered locally to respond 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 the local partner, 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 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.