Capping off an exciting year for broadband expansion in the United States, VCTI, the broadband and network technology experts, today announced several growth milestones achieved in 2022. Driven by an interest in the company's Broadband Investment Optimization (BIO) offering, VCTI grew its customer base of broadband service providers by more than 25 percent and extended engagements with existing customers, increasing BIO revenue by more than 100 percent.
With increased activity in light of the anticipated BEAD funding and responses to the FCC maps, broadband service providers are focused on prioritizing key markets and understanding the business case and cost of expansion. In Q4 of 2022, VCTI announced that it had supported $1B in grant applications and was working with a range of service providers and municipalities to challenge the FCC maps that will inform BEAD Funding.
"In a market driven by an influx of grant funding and a race to expand service to unserved and underserved homes, service providers must make smart decisions about where to invest for the best return on investment. Decisions made today will make all the difference as they grow and defend their market share," explained VCTI CEO Raj Singh. "Our customers recognize the unique value of our geospatial, data analytics platform that combines sophisticated market, competitive, infrastructure, geological, and environmental data with expert network planning capabilities. Armed with good data and a bullet-proof business case, service providers can implement data-driven prioritization of their investments as they plan their growth strategies."
Innovative Offerings
In the second half of the year, VCTI launched new capabilities for its BIO suite of services and two innovative new offerings that provide value to service providers.
- New BIO features and capabilities introduced include Geographical Terrain Identification to more precisely determine the cost to dig and lay fiber; and weather event risk assessment to enable the impact of floods, hurricanes, etc., to be incorporated into aerial v underground decisions.
- VCTI integrated EDX Wireless' SignalPro into its BIO services suite. This integration simplifies Wireless Internet Service Providers' (WISP) network operations and provides the foundation for a complete zero-touch flow from customer query to service activation.
- VCTI's Broadband Map Integrity Service is designed to help states, municipalities, schools, and other interested parties to quickly and efficiently submit challenges to the recently-released FCC maps, the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric), that will inform the allocation of $42.5 billion in BEAD (Broadband Equity Access and Deployment) grants. One Louisiana school district using the new offering found that six percent of the under-served homes in the district were missing from the Fabric and successfully challenged the maps.
Growth in Software Development Services
During 2022, VCTI grew headcount by 25 percent, with key strategic investments in AI, machine learning and product and SaaS architecture resources. Most gratifying, each existing customer for software services has extended and expanded engagements for software development and testing support from VCTI.
