The Rapid Systems Hardee County Broadband Project
The Rapid Systems Hardee County IDA Broadband Project network currently has 165 access points, over 2,000 customers connecting to an ILA in a datacenter located in Ona, Florida.
On November 12, 2009, Rapid Systems and the Hardee County Industrial Development Authority filed a joint application with the Hardee County Economic Development Authority for a grant to fund the construction and maintenance of broadband infrastructure and related equipment and services to serve Hardee County, Florida and the operation of affordable broadband services to residences, businesses and anchor institutions.
History
Project deployment began in the spring of 2010. Rapid Systems set an industry first of installing 15 monopoles in 15 days. All initial infrastructure with Motorola WiMax 4G was deployed in 3 months.
In the Winter of 2010, Rapid Systems extended the Hardee County Network into Highlands County providing middle mile and last mile infrastructure to the Highlands County Emergency Operations Center as well as last mile service to a Highlands County Economic Development Initiative.
In the Summer of 2011, Rapid Systems extended the Hardee Network into Desoto County offering both middle mile and last mile service from 5 locations extending from the North Hardee/Desoto boundary to the South Desoto/Charlotte boundary as well as East to Orange Co and West to Kings Highway.
In the Winter of 2011, Rapid Systems connected to an ILA with two Gbps of capacity from Level 3.
In the Spring of 2012, Rapid Systems began installations of Digital Phone (VOIP) for both commercial and residential customers.
