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Project overview
The future of our communities lies in their ability to participate in the digital economy. Fast, economical, and
always on broadband will support the ability of communities across the globe to keep government functioning
efficiently, support the connectivity needed for a Smart County and allow citizens to access online education,
telehealth, buy and sell goods online, utilize online banking, and access government services. Simply put –
every year our lives increasingly move online and depend more and more on broadband access and
connectivity. Communities that remain underserved or unserved by world class fiber and wireless connections
will fall behind. Escambia County’s leadership recognizes that its current broadband connectivity is lacking the
infrastructure and access needed to support a thriving community and citizenry. Leadership has a goal of
ensuring all their citizens can access and connect to affordable state of the art broadband.
Use of Evidence
In late October 2020, Escambia County issued an RFP for a broadband feasibility study. Magellan Advisors,
alongside other firms, provided a detailed proposal and response to the RFP. Escambia County awarded the
Broadband Feasibility Study to Magellan Advisors. The study’s goals were to understand any gaps in
infrastructure and access to the community members, anchors, and businesses in Escambia, and
define solutions to solve those gaps. Magellan deployed considerable resources and was able to provide a
complete a detailed Feasibility Study before December 30, 2020. For several years residents of Escambia
County have complained about both the access and cost for quality broadband, and some areas, mainly in the
north part of the county, have little or no broadband connectivity.
As part of the of the Feasibility Study, a detailed and comprehensive resident survey was conducted and
confirmed that much of Escambia County was truly underserved. The Feasibility Study outlined the state of
broadband in Escambia County, recommendations, and an informal plan to propel the County forward in
helping to solve the broadband unserved and underserved problems within the county. Major findings from the
Broadband Feasibility Study:
• The study demonstrates demand for high-speed internet.
• The study demonstrates and confirms areas with under and unserved residents.
• The County desires to serve the needs of these under and unserved residents.
• The study identified about 3,000 under and unserved residents.
• The County desires to both retain and expand business and economic development opportunities.
• The County desires to reduce operating cost and enhance services for its residents and businesses.
Based on the results of the Feasibility Study it became clear that the County must be a driving force to solve
the broadband connectivity issues across the entire county. Magellan determined the best and most effective
ways to achieve the broadband goals is for the County to build, own and operate its own community fiber-optic
broadband network, Escambia Fiber Network (EFN). Based on this conclusion, several benefits of the network
have been highlighted in the Feasibility Study and the results/recommendations were presented to the County
Commission. Besides a major annual savings on County connectivity estimated at approximately $676,000 in
taxpayer savings the following are also identified.
The network will make available 1 Gigabit and 150 Megabit internet service for more than 3,000 underserved
residents and businesses. For fiber customers this would be a symmetrical service which has become a
necessity in today’s cloud-based application environment, the fiber will also be hardened and extremely
reliable as a complete underground fiber network. The County-owned network will also be a fully redundant
system which does not exist today and a requirement for many businesses and all of the County’s operated
services. The network will have positive impacts for economic development, students and education, and
healthcare - especially related to the on-going pandemic. The network also ensures the County will have
control of its broadband future and self-determination in supporting its residents. The below is the conceptual
network overview of the planned and designed hybrid fiber-wireless network.