A Fixed-Wireless franchise model for unserved and underserved - ETI
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June 23, 2022

A Fixed-Wireless franchise model for unserved and underserved

The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software

Brad Hine:

Hello, everyone, in broadband land, and welcome to another episode of the Broadband Bunch. I’m your host, Brad Hine, bringing you another unique story from the world of broadband. Our guest today has served in various leadership positions over his last 22-plus years in wireless telecommunications and infrastructure. In addition, he served for five years as a consultant to FirstNet, helping the federal government design, engineer, and implement the very successful nationwide Public Safety Broadband network, currently being built by AT&T. In this role, he was exposed to the needs for public safety connectivity in rural communities and the need in general for reliable broadband service in these communities.

Brad Hine:

Today, he serves as a chief operating officer for Patriot Broadband, a company with a mission to bring reliable, fast, affordable, and secure internet connections to underserved rural communities. Patriot Broadband is also the only franchise model in the broadband space in the United States. Please join me in welcoming Greg Ford to the show. Greg, welcome.

Greg Ford:

Thanks, Brad. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

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Brad Hine:

Yeah. Please. Pleasure, for sure. There is so much going on in the world of broadband right now, and I know your story to me was very unique, and when we talked initially, a bunch of things really popped out at me that you guys are trying to conquer in this space. So, give us just a general overview for our audience of Patriot Broadband and what you guys are doing.

Greg Ford:

Yeah. Like you said, and this is after a lot of digging and research, what we’ve determined, is we’re the only franchise model providing wireless broadband in the country, and we can talk a little bit more about what that franchise model looks like. But yeah, our mission is really going into rural communities and bringing them the connectivity that they have lacked for years and in many cases still do. And that’s our focus.

Greg Ford:

I guess the purpose of the company is twofold. It’s to obviously find markets where our franchisees can be successful, so there’s obviously a return on investment that we like to see and find, and there’s a sweet spot market size for us, but all of them do come with that underserved community tag, for sure.

Brad Hine:

Right. Right. Well, I know there’s a tremendous crusade in America for serving the underserved in the broadband market. It doesn’t necessarily have to align with a certain technology, but I know that fixed wireless has come such a long way, even in the last couple of years, and the cost compared to other forms of network infrastructure. Can you talk a little bit about why the fixed wireless choice is really the front runner for broadband?

Greg Ford:

Yeah, it really has. And I don’t know all of the factors, but you’re right, I would say in the last two to three years, the technology has exploded. Improvements in reliability, security, and all of that, I’m aware and I have some friends that have consulted with Facebook within the last five years, and I think they were part of the catalyst for that. They’ve been building wireless broadband networks all over the world, in a self-serving model, but a company that size really pushed the industry and all of the equipment manufacturers to get in the game.

Greg Ford:

And so, five or six years ago, there were probably two to three really good OEMs, but there wasn’t much of a market for them, and now a lot of companies have really stepped into the fray and pushed the development of the technology. And so, I think that’s part of the catalyst. But now we have a lot of different providers to choose from and a lot of different technologies, and they’re providing excellent service around that technology. And so, we’re really able to pick and choose from a menu of different equipment and providers and services that best fit the markets and our franchisees. So, it’s not nearly as difficult as it was probably three or four years ago to put those equipment and technology packages together.

Brad Hine:

Well, that’s great news, and I know knowledge and expertise from folks like yourself is really helping, helping the market and helping to shorten that divide, so to speak. So, the beginnings of Patriot Broadband, the company is really not that old. Tell us how it started and when you guys got started and when you jumped in.

Greg Ford:

Yeah, sure. It’s not that old. I would say, as a company, we really started in earnest in the first part of 2021, as a franchise model. The beginnings of the company go a little bit before that, with the same mission, bringing fixed wireless broadband to rural communities, and actually, our first franchisee, who is… He was up and operational and joined the franchise group a little bit prior to 2021, but it was an idea… It didn’t start out as a franchise idea, but we are 100% owned by a private equity firm out of Miami. They saw a real opportunity with the business model for the franchise. That is their expertise, is taking brands and good ideas and franchising them. That model is their specialty.

Greg Ford:

And so, that’s kind of how Patriot was born. And really honed in on our mission of serving rural broadband needs in those customers. And so, they saw a market opportunity, of course. It’s not all charitable. I do like the fact that Patriot serves a need and serves the public good in those communities for sure. But, there’s a real business model out there, and I think that we’ve found a really good way to capture that with the franchise model, for sure.

Greg Ford:

I came onboard last October of 2021, and in my job really prior to that, I really didn’t have leadership, surely anyone with my years and years of experience. So, I was brought in to really refine the model, look at the technology that we were utilizing, and change it if necessary, which we have, and figure out how to get our markets open and on air quicker. And then, certainly figure out how to scale the business, all of which I have been working on since I got here. And so far, those initiatives that we’ve undertaken have borne some fruit, so we’re pretty excited about where we are now.

Brad Hine:

Wow, that’s great. That’s great. So, some of the differentiators that you initially mentioned to me obviously were all the various functions and services that you’re providing to an operator that wants to be a franchise… That’s a lot. So, I know being in this space for 15 years and know every piece of software, every piece of hardware that has to happen in the network, and all the teams that have to manage it and check up on it. Talk a little bit about all the services and basically, I guess, talk about your model and what you’re offering to an operator that would want to invest in Patriot Broadband.

Greg Ford:

Yeah, you bet. One of the things that I saw when I joined the company… As they were interviewing me, and it was over the course of a month or so, I kept asking the question… I get the franchise part, but what’s the secret sauce for us? What are the benefit and the benefits that we’re providing? And I came up with those on my own, which the company liked, and that’s what we’ve executed on, which was, we need to be providing this whole range of services. So, what we do is we do all of our own engineering and design for the markets internally. We do all of our own equipment procurement, equipment engineering and design, project management to build out these networks, and construction and construction management.

Greg Ford:

So, we can bring a franchisee in, basically, who has no experience in this space at all, and we do everything for them to get their market network design launched and operational. We do provide them training on some of the software platforms so that they can run their business. But, they really don’t have to worry about the health of the network. We provide them with 24/7 network monitoring. We have a whole network operations suite of services that we provide them as well. So, they’re just a carrier of a box, basically, after we launch the market for them.

Greg Ford:

And it really fits the franchise model because ideally, we love having franchisees that live in the communities that they are serving. It’s not a requirement, but we do like them to either live in the community or be connected to it or somewhat close to that community. And it’s really something that they can start and run from their home. Like you say with software and everything nowadays, it’s really not that complicated. With all the backend services that we’re providing, they can run their own network, and it’s really fun to see. And as we bring in a franchisee, we train them up, and it’s over the course of a couple of months, and you can really start seeing the light go off. They understand that they are an internet service provider, and it’s kind of fun. They never really thought of themselves like that, but they are, and they’re also serving their community and doing some good as well.

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Brad Hine:

That’s fabulous. I just think it’s so interesting, talking to all the different broadband operators that we do and being in the industry for so many years, all of the good practices that are learned through hard work and, in a lot of ways, learned on the long-term plan instead of the short-term plan. And so, you’re offering up a recipe of best practices to run this. So, what are some of the other requirements that you might have for a franchisee? Maybe a better way to say this is, what would describe an underserved market that you would go after, and how would you evaluate that?

Greg Ford:

So, what we currently look at is markets that… and we have various population ranges that we look at. And it all depends on the franchisee’s level of investment, what they want their return from that investment to be, and when. And so, it’s not an exact science, but we have really refined our search criteria. So, right now, we’ll look at communities that are between 8,000 and 20,000 people, about 2,000 to 5,000 households, perhaps, with some businesses in there. And then, also look at the competitive landscape. Who’s there? There’s almost always some type of service provider, and in most instances, obviously, it’s satellite companies that are the first competitors. There are some fixed wireless providers in the markets that we look at, but we really look at what type of plans they’re offering. What speeds are they delivering?

Greg Ford:

And so, if there’s a couple of competitors that are also in the fixed wireless space, but they offer no more than 25 megabit plans, we’ll go in. We’ll look at it, we’ll go in because we believe that we can provide a better service, a more reliable service, and those enhanced broadband speeds that customers are looking for in those markets that they haven’t had access to. So, that is some of the criteria we look at. And, we’re not afraid of competition. It’s actually good that there’s some there. We’ll check customer and subscriber reviews also, anecdotally, to just see what the tenor is in the market, and those are usually… If they have good service and reliable service, there are no reviews. It’s when they have bad service. And that tends to pop up pretty quickly when you start doing the research.

Greg Ford:

So, all of those things, and we’ll come up with typically two to three market options for franchisees also so that they have the opportunity to… and sometimes, it’s with their suggestion, that they’re in the community or there aware of a community and the need, and we’ll take that into account as well. But in the end, after we do our market research and initial modeling, we’ll give them two to three, sometimes four options, and really give them some time to go visit those markets, get a feel for it, do their own due diligence and research, before we all settle on where we’re going to go and how are we going to build it out.

Brad Hine:

Got you. Got you. So, a typical timeline, and obviously when you’re talking about a franchise or even being in product for so many years like I have, you want to replicate and repeat something, refine it as quickly as possible, and get it out in the market so people can use it.

Greg Ford:

Yeah.

Brad Hine:

So, what’s a typical timeline from beginning to end when you’re speaking to a new franchise opportunity?

Greg Ford:

This was one of the biggest challenges that I saw with the business, actually, when I joined. We had franchisees that were signing on to the system, and they had been signed for six months by the time I got there, and they weren’t open or on air. Being in the industry for so long, I knew that they were missing something. And I also knew that given that we utilize existing tower infrastructure and almost always looking for existing fiber assets in the area, I just didn’t think that it should take that long.

Greg Ford:

And I really wanted to tighten that timeline down to six months minimum. I think right now, everything is equal, and if everything goes our way, from the time a franchisee signs, I am shooting for five months to get them up, open, and on air. And that’s my outside. I even think we can pull that in a little bit. We’re having some issues with equipment, and some supply chain issues that we can’t really overcome, but they will over time.

Brad Hine:

Right.

Greg Ford:

If I had my way, from the starting line, from the second they sign, we’d like to have market selection completed with them in about four weeks, and then from that point, open in five months, minimum.

Brad Hine:

Wow. Wow, that’s service. That’s great. That’s great. So, let me take a little step to the side a little bit. So, as I mentioned before, there’s a lot of money in this space. How does the money, federal and state, affect your business, or does it at this point?

Greg Ford:

It doesn’t at all. One of the advantages of being a franchise model is we’re really… the franchisees are the ones that are coming to us with the capital, saying, “We have x number of dollars to invest, we want a business. We like your business, and let’s do it.” And so, it hasn’t really helped us and it certainly hasn’t hindered us at all. One of the advantages that I saw with the model is we don’t have to go to big investors or capital markets or anything like that to build out our portfolio. So, we can keep our franchise system lean, which ultimately benefits the franchisee, and deploy their capital into their business.

Greg Ford:

There is a lot of money out there, and with the federal infrastructure grants, that’s all still in process, and I do think that at some point down the road, our franchisees will be able to benefit from some of that once they’re up, operational, serving their communities. We’re hopeful that the rules will be such that our franchisees will be able to apply for that grant money for expansion, either expand their coverage footprints, expand their market area, or really enhance the technology that they deploy.

Greg Ford:

And those grants, I believe, go out through 2026 and ’27 in some cases. I do think that at some point soon, our franchisees that are operational will be able to take advantage of that. It doesn’t affect us now as far as our current growth model, at all. I think it could be beneficial down the line, but we’re not waiting around for that, at all.

Brad Hine:

Got you. Got you. I’ve heard it said before in many places, anyone with $500,000 can open up a fixed wireless business and just have at it, but the issue is coming up with that initial money, and then having the expertise to actually run it without any mistakes, getting to your ROI as quickly as possible. So, talk a little bit about the expertise that lies within Patriot Broadband from you and your colleagues.

Greg Ford:

Yeah, so between myself and our CTO, we have about 40 years, roughly, in the space. He’s a great engineer and has built these networks all over the country. Really knows how they work, knows how to fix them, knows how to design them, which is great. I rely on that a lot. I am not an engineer. I know enough to be dangerous when it comes to that. But understanding the business model is really, I think, the benefit that we provide with the years of experience… Obviously, engineering is huge. If you build it right the first time, you don’t have to go back and touch it for years. So, that’s a huge benefit for our franchisees.

Greg Ford:

I also think one of the big benefits we have is our marketing. We have a great team that handles all the marketing for our franchisees, all the content, and all the marketing collateral, and we really jump in with our franchisees prior to launch, we build out a launch marketing plan, typically around certain communities’ events. We utilize Facebook ads and Google ads and LinkedIn ads and mailers. We have a really solid system that really captures everything from a marketing perspective so that our franchisees don’t have to worry about that either. A lot of people that want to own a business, they’re not necessarily into marketing. And in this business, it’s critical, but you don’t have to be an expert in the marketing department. We handle all of that for them as well.

Greg Ford:

So, I think that’s a real differentiator, but I think it’s a real value that we provide our franchisees.

Brad Hine:

Wow. So, when I mentioned in your intro some of the experiences that you had, it goes to either end of the spectrum. You’ve been on some national projects for tier one operators like AT&T, consulting. So, how did your motivation get you to this point, in doing what you’re doing now, for the rural broadband operators? What’s your motivation here?

Greg Ford:

Yeah. I grew up around people in rural communities. My grandfather was an old rancher. And so, I spent a lot of time with him. I am most at home in the country. I live out in the country right now. And so, being around those types of people has just been my comfort zone for a long time. When I was with FirstNet, we did a lot of consulting with rural communities around public safety and public safety communications. And, it was remarkable to me how in the Stone Age some of these public safety agencies were out in rural communities. And then, that obviously filtered down to the homes themselves, and what type of service are they getting, if any. It was something I really enjoyed that time at FirstNet, anyway, because it was serving a real public need, public safety wide. But I just had this affinity for rural communities.

Greg Ford:

When Patriot came along, I don’t know, it just set something off in me that this is what I wanted to do, and the next mission that I wanted to tackle. For example, one of our franchisees that we’re just opening now in Hugo, Oklahoma, I mentioned this to you earlier, she’s a great story, and really one of the things that keep me going. It’s a woman-owned business, a woman-owned franchise. She’s an Army veteran. she’s a young gal, too, but she’s just super active in her community. And Hugo is a very small community, I think 3,000 people. But, she wanted to build this business in her community because she grew up there, and she grew up without broadband internet.

Brad Hine:

Wow.

Greg Ford:

She told me several stories about when she was taking college classes, she’s have to drive over the Texas border to get a connection while she was taking online classes, and it was about a 25-mile drive, just for her to be able to do homework and attend certain online classes. You just think to yourself, “What year are we in? This is crazy.” But still out there. They’re still there. So, we did a soft launch with her a couple of weeks ago at the Hugo Rodeo, and it was extremely successful. Our marketing team was out there with them. We had a booth set up, and it was a really exciting event and just a real favorable response from the community. She is about to start adding subscribers here in a week or two, but she already has a pre-sign-up list of about 50 people that are eager and want to get on the schedule. So, it’s a really good way to launch a market.

Greg Ford:

That’s really how eager they are. We’ve barely done anything and done any marketing at all, and she’s got a customer list of 50 that want to be served as quick as we can. So, that’s pretty exciting.

Brad Hine:

Wow. So, marketing at a rodeo and immediately signing up your first large group of subscribers for broadband internet service, that’s amazing. It really is.

Greg Ford:

Rodeos are very popular out here.

Brad Hine:

Yeah.

Greg Ford:

It’s a great way to do it.

Brad Hine:

I think what I’ve heard over the last two plus years in interviewing folks across the country and internationally for this podcast, is a community-driven endeavor. And any community event that you can wrap broadband access and helping underserved rural communities to get connected, obviously after we’ve gone through two years of the pandemic, and we’re coming out of it at this point-

Greg Ford:

Yeah, absolutely.

Brad Hine:

Yeah. It’s just so crucial to everybody in these communities. As we wrap up today, we have a couple of questions that we always ask the guests on our show. In the first one, we call it our back to the future question. It’s really just thought-provoking… If you had your time machine, your DeLorean, and you could go back in time and whisper some advice in your ear at the beginning of your career, or at the beginning of this endeavor, what would be those magical words you would tell yourself?

Greg Ford:

That’s actually pretty easy considering where I’m at now. If I could go back 15 or 20 years, as I was formulating or mapping out my career, I was always chasing the next big job or big project or whatever it was, in a very profit-driven type way. I would go back, and I would tell myself, really, to find a mission with a purpose, something that you can grab onto and believe in. I’m sure my dad probably gave me that advice when I was younger anyway, but I didn’t pay attention. But it would be that.

Greg Ford:

And really, I think the mission of Patriot Broadband is bringing broadband connectivity to these rural communities and really helping them out, it’s a good goal and a good mission. So, I really would’ve said to myself, find a mission with purpose and principle, and go after that, and the money will take care of itself. And I do believe that. I would tell myself to have a little more discipline and have more focus and purpose, I guess, with my planning out of my career. But I think I’m there now.

Brad Hine:

Wise words.

Greg Ford:

Took long enough.

Brad Hine:

So, the antithesis of that, looking into the future, our crystal ball question for Patriot Broadband, I know obviously the ecosystem with broadband and all the innovations, all the money we’re seeing, rules making with the FCC and NTIA, as we all know… Obviously, we won’t get into that episode, but it’s constantly evolving. But where do you see Patriot in five, 10 years?

Greg Ford:

Yeah. In five years, we have a target… In five years, we would like to have about 100 franchisee markets operational. We would like to be in our core market areas, spreading out throughout the Southeast, and really growing and proving up the model. But I really think that we will be able to get to 100 plus. I’m trying to be conservative. I get really aggressive on stuff like that. And I think it’s achievable, too, the way we have built and started to scale our model. We can definitely handle it.

Greg Ford:

10 years, who knows? If successful, and I do believe we will be, there could be a tripling of that number in 10 years, and we’ll just see. I think it’s a valuable model, and I think it’s a great way to serve these underserved areas that need it, and we’re ready for that challenge and we’re ready to grow.

Brad Hine:

Well, Greg, I want to thank you for joining us today and sharing your stories about Patriot Broadband and your experience in the market. But before we go, is there a place for our audience to find Patriot Broadband on the web if they want to get more information?

Greg Ford:

Yeah, you bet. Patriotbroadbandfranchise.com, where you can find and contact us for franchise opportunities. And Patriot Broadband is our consumer site, patriotbroadband.com is our consumer site, where subscribers can go and put in their zip code and find out if they have served in their area or if service is coming soon. So, both those ways.

Brad Hine:

Excellent. Excellent. And thank you so much again. From myself and the Broadband Bunch today, I want to thank everybody for joining us. I want to wish you a great week, and a great year. Please come to us with your broadband stories, and we’ll see you next time on the Broadband Bunch.