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| USDA Broadband Grant |
Roberts County Telephone Cooperative Association
New Effington, South Dakota |
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| Roberts County Telephone Cooperative Association (RCTCA) and its engineering firm called upon Consortia to assist with completing and submitting the professional application packages for USDA grant and loan funding. |
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| The application process for USDA funding is extensive and has specific requirements with very little room for deviation. Consortia provided superior expertise to RCTCA by: |
•Developing strong business plans
•Performing market analysis
•Providing demographic research and market surveys
•Outlining financial modeling |
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| Consortia responded to the demands of the application process by facilitating the following: |
•Developing and distributing a customer survey
•Tabulating the survey results
•Producing product forecasts by service types
•Conducting financial analysis relative to the proposed projects |
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| In 2004, Roberts County Telephone Cooperative Association (RCTCA) was awarded a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant in the amount of $544,099 to assist with providing broadband access in Corona, SD. In 2006, RCTCA was approved for a USDA loan of more than $3 million to expand broadband access in South Dakota and Minnesota. |
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