Gryphon Communications LLC | Application Preview
Gryphon Communications LLC, also known as Gryphon Fiber, is seeking approximately $300,000 in government grants to enhance its operations and expand broadband services. The funding will be allocated for acquiring vehicles for technicians, construction equipment, and software/hardware essential for installing and maintaining network infrastructure. Additional funds will support inventory replenishment, hiring operational staff, contracting construction services, and improving community connectivity.
The company has laid out a detailed five-year business plan. In Year 1, Gryphon aims to develop initial infrastructure layouts, secure necessary permits, and establish contracts for expanding fiber connections. They will also initiate sales and installations to build a customer base.
In Year 2, the focus will shift to completing initial construction and expanding to new sites, enhancing network bandwidth, and training staff. Year 3 involves investing in further technologies, exploring additional services like phone and web development, and ramping up marketing efforts.
By Year 4, Gryphon aims to upgrade networks for increased bandwidth, purchase smaller ISPs in surrounding areas, and enhance off-grid power capabilities. In Year 5, the goal is to expand the infrastructure footprint across multiple states and reassess pricing to remain competitive.
The company targets several priority areas for service expansion, including Michigan City, Indiana, and surrounding towns. Gryphon is committed to leveraging existing utility rights-of-way to minimize disruption during infrastructure development.
Gryphon Communications recognizes the importance of digital equity and plans to implement training programs for veterans and community members. They intend to support broadband affordability through initiatives like the Affordable Connectivity Program and by offering non-contract packages.
In a competitive landscape, Gryphon aims to differentiate itself by developing and maintaining its own infrastructure, ensuring quality service, and providing superior customer support with local staffing. Overall, the application underscores Gryphon's commitment to investing in community connectivity and building a sustainable telecommunications network.
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General Information
Business Registration Number: 202302131663432
Location: MICHIGAN CITY, IN, United States
Length of Operation: 1-5
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: $100k to $250k
Annual Gross Expense: $100k to $250k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
Gryphon Communications LLC (DBA Gryphon Fiber) is requesting approximately $300,000 at this time to acquire various vehicles for field-techs, engineers and alternate field staff to conduct installations and repairs of both major and minor network infrastructure. We are also requesting this funding in order to acquire various construction vehicles and equipment to conduct major infrastructure installation for said networks. Funding will also be utilized to purchase various software and hardware to be utilized during installation of both phone and internet service delivery and operation. The remainder of funding will be utilized to replenish inventory, employ additional operational staff, contract construction and service contractors, install main circuits and backup circuits and for use on community connectivity both in-side and outside of main city operations for business functionality.
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Business Plan
Year 1 Plan / Goals Development of initial outside fiber plant layout, equipment needs, cost of equipment for infrastructure, cabinets, splitters, electrical circuitry, and layout to each home, business or municipality within selected starting location. Gather permitting required for build-out of infrastructure Develop and implement contracts with proposed partners to complete main and secondary fiber feeds up-to local planned infrastructure. Develop and implement contracts with proposed partners to complete area infrastructure for outside fiber plant. Develop and implement contracts with proposed partners to complete initial up-to promise locations for in-house technicians to complete installations up-to home, business and municipality locations. Conduct initial sale and installations during each phase of progression to start building customer base. Start initial signups for uncompleted phases or up-coming planned phases for installation areas. Start to expand employee base during multiple phase completions Year 2 Plan / Goals Completion of start-up location construction and implementation. Start expansion to additional planned broadband expansion site(s). Build-out and expand secondary fiber-ring feeds for backup and overflow of needed bandwidth for forecasted needs. Secondary feed to first build-out site Provide increased bandwidth capacity to all finished network sites as needed. Invest into further training for all applicable staff members currently and/or begin the hiring process of additional staff. Build additional Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for new departments. Revisit, adapt or expand on current SOPs already in place Expand operational and field departments Start testing and/or offering multi-gigabit services to residential locations. Year 3 Plan / Goals Invest into additional infrastructure technologies to increase effective network capacities and/or to provide additional customer services offered by us. Phone Service(s) Possible third-party service(s) under contractual basis? Business services like web development? Internal network design services for business customers? Design / start build-out of additional network sites as possible Continue to expand operational and field-staff as needed Continue and expand marketing and outreach as needed Look into purchasing smaller incumbents to expand the operational range of the network. Invest in additional business expansion solutions. Dark Fiber Leased fiber-optic lines for smaller incumbents Invest into additional security appliances and data fortification measures as needed Year 4 Plan / Goals Upgrade all possible network feeds for additional bandwidth. Implement and adapt all GPON networks currently under operation from Gryphon Communications to Active Optical Networks if possible for increased bandwidth capabilities. Upgrade all non-active optical networks to newer equipment if available. Build-out all networks with additional fiber-optic network feeds if needed and/or possible. Develop off-grid power features further if needed. All network sites should already have battery backup and limited solar potential if possible at this point. Look into purchasing smaller incumbent ISPs in near-operational areas if not already done so prior. Inside or outside of Michigan City and foot-print areas already established. Inside or outside of Indiana / Michigan / Ohio / Illinois / Kentucky area(s) or potentially even more remote / further away from original location(s) If so, needing to establish or purchase out existing buildings / equipment, etc from those incumbents. Look into upgrading and/or retrofitting fiber if needed for incumbents purchased. Goal at this point is to be completely self-reliant on our own internal crews for build-outs at this point due to training and equipment capabilities. Year 5 Plan / Goals Continue to expand our infrastructure footprint across state and/or to other bordering states. Expand purchased incumbent infrastructure and strengthen network(s) as needed. Re-evaluate pricing as needed for all service(s) currently offered at this point to see if we can offer cheaper options if possible. Look into additional network, customer and business premise equipment as needed. Look into increasing network capacity across the board at all network sites Continue to expand business staff and vendor relationships Continue to expand internal staff as needed Focus / Projected Area(s) Below are currently the listed area(s) to which Gryphon Communications LLC would like to focus and/or begin with, from first priority and descending in order. These area(s) are desired locations that are currently planned but, are not limited to: Town of Pines, Michigan City, Indiana Beverly Shores, Indiana Michigan City, Indiana Chesterton, Indiana Broadband Related Information Broadband Deployment Gryphon Communications will utilize any information needed and/or necessary to contact local, state or federal office(s) in order to inquire about usage of establishments, co-locations or to utilize any utility right-of-ways or conduit in existence already to expand infrastructure if available. Gryphon Communications will either purchase, lease or offer service(s) in exchange for usage of said locations, utility right-of-ways or conduits if offered and/or available to stay as non-intrusive as possible. Gryphon Communications would utilize state or federal dark-fiber deployed in areas of planned infrastructure if available to expand the coverage area during initial construction and turn-up of services. After turn-up has occurred, Gryphon Communications would then either keep the contract in place or start construction of owned infrastructure, if contract is time-based. Gryphon Communications will employ and/or utilize a highly skilled workforce available to deploy broadband services as needed. Broadband Adoption Gryphon Communications realizes that not all customers within the area will adopt services. During this realization, we set our adoption goals to approximately 40% - 45%. Gryphon Communications realizes that digital literacy may not be equal and will adopt a program to provide literacy for customers and require training as needed to the necessity of broadband importance and what is being provided. Gryphon Communications will develop and maintain a public computer lab with adequate service(s) for the needs of our community. Broadband Affordability Gryphon Communications will register and take part within the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) for residents who qualify for reduced and discounted service(s). Discount or subsidized broadband services will be available for first responders, essential employment professionals and work-from-home or remote education students upon request but with documentation on file. Utility assistance programs will be available for consumers with limited and/or low-income customers upon request and/or known hardships with documentation on file. Contracts will not be required within standard broadband packages. This will allow customers during hardships who have exhausted all options of reduction of payments may cancel and reobtain services within the future with no penalty. Broadband Access Gryphon Communications will provide areas of Public Wi-Fi and Public Network Access upon negotiations with the city, municipalities and private business locations as needed. Gryphon Communications will provide middle-mile access to networks upon request and as needed. Digital Equity Workforce development training and employment services related to broadband adoption will be provided to Veterans, College Students and community members looking to return to work with equal opportunity rights. Technical assistance to support digital inclusion will be provided during interactions within email, phone, in-person technical visits and scheduled events. Civic and volunteer organizations that provide volunteer and advocacy assistance for digital equity programs and likewise services. Inclusion of task forces or place based coalitions that work towards digital equity and include a diverse group of stakeholders in the state or surrounding areas such as engagement with other ISPs, state agencies, local community governments, tribal leaderships, public or private organizations, libraries, educational institutions, federal / state or local landowners, residence, etc. Gryphon Communications LLC (DBA Gryphon Fiber) is looking to keep all operations in-house, and not to rely on outsourced or out-of-the-USA entities to provide services and/or technical resolutions by creating local positions within each established area that we intend to expand and operate within. Not only this but, we plan to bring high-speed internet connectivity and voice services to keep each of our community members connected to all aspects of their daily life whether it is to conduct business, talk to their loved ones or in general just to browse the internet. We want to invest in our community, and to future-proof the telecommunications infrastructure within our area to ensure that our current and future community members, local or state level establishments and federal establishments can maintain essential operations as needed.
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Self Identified Competition
Our three main competitors are Comcast (Xfinity), ATT and ACME Telecommunications at the current time. Comcast (Xfinity) is a "Cable" provider, able to provide approximate up-to speeds of 1 Gbps in most areas of operation but, are unable to sustain this for all customers across their network. ATT operates multiple types of infrastructure in the planned areas. ATT in approximately 30% of Michigan City has Fiber Optic Internet while the remainder is a combination of aDSL or Wireless Point-to-Multipoint services. ACME Telecommunications is a Fiber Optic Internet provider, mostly servicing business locations. ACME Telecommunications also services approximately 38% to 40% of residential customers in the Michigan City area but, operate on leased lines from Comcast shared circuit. Unlike most of our competitors, we would like to build our and maintain our own infrastructure and to maintain it by providing the highest quality equipment. We will also adequately staff our in-city offices, and or our remote workers within the US to give our customers piece of mind and a minimum language barrier versus our major competitors. We will also be looking into and providing the best training possible by providing workshops and/or programs to educate and progress our staff with more advanced knowledge, with minimum escalations barriers to service our customers to the absolute best of our abilities, at a reduced time from issue to resolution.
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