County-wide Broadband

Highlands County (the County) is seeking a public or private partner that can design, build, finance, operate, and manage (DBFOM) an affordable, reliable, and scalable all fiber optic middle mile network to support next generation high speed broadband internet to businesses, residences, and other entities. This should allow for the expansion of economic development, distance education, telemedicine, smart government applications, digital divide solutions, and other advanced internet and IP based products and solutions. Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Deadline to submit questions (RFI's) Monday, February 13, 2023 Anticipated award date. Located in the center of the sunshine state, Highlands County, Florida encompasses 1,029 square miles of the state's heartland, and is home to three growing municipalities: the cities of Avon Park and Sebring, and the Town of Lake Placid. Per data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the County has a growing population of over 106,000 people (population estimate, July 1, 2019) which is a 7.5 percent population change from April 1, 2010 (estimate base) to July 1, 2019, and as of 2010 97.2 population per square mile. Per 2015-2019 Census data, in the County there are 41,740 households with 2.43 persons per household. 83 percent of those households (33,392) have a computer. In addition, 74.3 percent (31,012) have a broadband internet subscription, but that still leaves at least 25 percent of households unserved, and of the 74.3 percent with existing broadband subscriptions - a decent portion are certainly underserved.

Division 01 -	General Requirements.
Division 10 -	Specialties.
Division 11 -	Equipment.