CrowdFiber, a developer of geomarketing automation software for telecommunications providers, announced that eight of its customers have been awarded more than $63 million in funding from the Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) Auction by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to provide broadband services to underserved homes and businesses in rural areas.

CrowdFiber customers who will receive broadband grants in the third wave of CAF II funding include: Tombigbee Communications, Alabama; Gibson Connect, Kentucky; Midwest Energy Cooperative, Michigan; Chariton Valley Communications Corporation, Missouri; RiverStreet Communications of North Carolina; Lake Region Technology & Communications, Oklahoma; PGEC Enterprises, Virginia and RiverStreet Communications of Virginia.

The companies will receive funding over the next decade to provide minimum download/upload speeds of at least 1 Gbps/500 Mbps to 25,021 locations. The CAF II auction is part of a broader effort by the FCC to close the digital divide in rural America.

“CrowdFiber has been an invaluable strategic tool throughout our growth process into new markets as we evaluate potential opportunities. This has been especially helpful in determining where grant funding may be available. Within a few minutes, we are able to determine if an area would be eligible for funding and if we could qualify,” said Eric Cramer, CEO of River Street Communications, who received $32M in CAF II funding in the recent auction, as well a state grant award. “Following that initial analysis, we had the tools to define exact areas, survey to determine interest, collect speed test data, and validate FCC existing services data from the actual consumers.”

“National broadband mapping data by itself is useful, but when a provider takes service territory already defined with CrowdFiber and then overlays engineering and demographic information, now you don’t only have data, you have insight to make better decisions,” said Greg Richardson, CrowdFiber CEO and co-founder. “We are delighted that our customers benefited from CrowdFiber and that their communities will ultimately benefit from high-speed broadband.”

CrowdFiber Platform Highlights: Visualization, FCC 477 Reporting and Validation

The CrowdFiber platform helps service providers identify new funding opportunities and validate service performance to ensure compliance with opportunities such as the Connect America Fund.

Unified geographic and reports view of eligible funding areas. Built-in relevant federal government datasets overlay the provider’s internal network data, along with subscriber and inbound interest data. Evaluation criteria layers include CAF II-Auction 903 and tribal lands layers, critical community facilities, educational facilities, and healthcare centers.

FCC 477 deployment reporting. A single click generates a FCC-ready 477 report with mandatory deployment data that includes locations, speeds and technology.

Speed test and existing broadband service validation. Identifies and validates existing service and connection data services with surveys and speed tests to meet FCC performance monitoring and measurement compliance requirements.