NTIA-BTOP, USDA-RUS and DOE-SGP Broadband Stimulus Proposal Simulation, Generation and Fulfillment Reporting Streamlined
Cornwall on Hudson, NY – April 6, 2009 – Wireless 20/20, LLC (www.wireless2020.com), a leader in WiMAX™ broadband wireless consulting and the developer of the industry-leading WiROI™ Business Case Tool, announced today that its award-winning WiROI™ Tool has been enhanced to support the generation of broadband proposals to be funded from the stimulus bill that President Obama signed on February 17, 2009. The company is providing enhanced tools, financial models and strategic planning services that give its clients the visibility needed to make strategic decisions as they prepare broadband stimulus proposals for submission to the US Departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Energy. This special version of the WiROI™ Business Case Analysis Tool enables municipalities and operators to build and validate business cases that detail their financial needs, strengthening the proposal and its acceptance by federal funding agencies on the aggressive timeline established by the stimulus bill.
In addition to its recognized expertise in wireless business case analysis, the company will support clients that are developing hybrid wired and wireless broadband service proposals for submission as a broadband stimulus program to one or more of the federal agencies administering broadband stimulus funding. “The WiROI™ Tool simplifies the task of modeling the broadband services for a given market allowing very complete assessment of sensitivity to key parameters and variations,” noted Frank Ohrtman, President, WMX Systems, a consulting firm focused on Stimulus Plan applications. “Its Interactive Graphical User Interface (GUI) is intuitive and the ability to model economic and technical parameters generating a detailed 10-year income statement with standard accounting business performance indicators, is critical to proposal validation and awarded program implementation.”
The WiROI™ 2.0 Business Case Analysis Tool has been extended to model the effects of federal grant subsidies and loan funding in a 10-year business case for proposed broadband networks and services. The enhanced WiROI™ Tool simplifies generation of complete proposals that demonstrate the incremental impact of the federal stimulus funding. The GUI is used to model various assumptions and scenarios, validating the viability and sustainability of the proposal. The same capabilities that have enabled WiMAX operators around the world to build bankable business cases have been extended to speed broadband stimulus proposal development. It evaluates the CapEx and OpEx needs of the access and core networks, builds a revenue model for the services to be offered, and returns comprehensive financial outputs that include a 10-year income statement. The enhanced WiROI™ Tool can also be used for awarded program fulfillment reporting.
"The WiROI™ Tool can help determine whether stimulus funding turns previously marginal broadband business cases into viable and sustainable businesses,” said Haig Sarkissian, Co-founder and Principal Consultant at Wireless 20/20. “Our enhanced WiROI™ Tool streamlines the generation of hybrid wired and wireless broadband business cases for inclusion in stimulus proposals, as well as the ongoing reporting required for fulfillment compliance.”
Since the initial launch of the WiROI™ Business Case Tool in 2007, it has been used by municipalities, network operators and equipment manufacturers around the world to develop comprehensive business cases, understand their financial requirements, and build detailed 10-year income statements to gain funding from demanding financiers. Guided by customer feedback from US and global clients, the upgrades to the WiROI™ Tool for the broadband stimulus bill include an expanded dashboard-style GUI, side-by-side vendor and technology comparison capabilities, and the ability to model the effects of various grants and loans from the stimulus programs on the business case results.
A demonstration version of the broadband stimulus enhanced WiROI™ Business Case Analysis Tool can be test driven at the Wireless 20/20 website (www.wireless2020.com).
About the Stimulus Bill
Signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009, the stimulus bill includes provisions for spending $7.2 billion on broadband initiatives and $11.0 billion for smart grid projects that will also include broadband investment opportunities. Of the $7.2 billion for broadband initiatives: $4.7 billion is appropriated to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under the newly formed Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) with $4.35 billion funding investments addressing the broadband needs of unserved and underserved areas (these funds must be awarded by September 30, 2010 and awarded projects implemented within two years of the award); $2.5 billion is appropriated to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s already established Rural Utilities Service (RUS) broadband loans, loan guarantees and grants program. For more information visit: www.recovery.gov.
About Wireless 20/20, LLC
Wireless 20/20 is an independent market research and consulting company focused solely on the emerging broadband wireless market. Our principals have been engaged in the wireless industry since its inception and have gained a thorough understanding of the technical, business and product issues surrounding the development of wireless devices, equipment, networks and services. For more information visit: www.wireless2020.com.
WiROI™ is a trademark of Wireless 20/20, LLC. WiMAX Forum® is a registered trademark and WiMAX™ is a trademark of the WiMAX Forum®.