About Us
In 1999, CostQuest’s founders left the corporate telecom world to set out on their own – the aim was simple: tackle complex client problems with great integrity and precision. Twenty-five years later, CostQuest Associates (CQA) is now employee-owned, as of 2023, and internationally recognized as the leading experts in network economics, profitability analysis, asset valuation, policy, programming, mapping, and data science.
Our team works with businesses and governments of all sizes to deliver robust data and services to solve of the industry’s most high-profile and complicated business challenges from broadband infrastructure planning, operations, mapping, to reporting.
We’re best known as the official provider of the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric data for the FCC’s Broadband Data Collection (BDC), NTIA’s BEAD, and other federal programs. We’re also the trusted cost modeling and data science experts governments and internet service providers rely on to distribute billions in broadband infrastructure investments across the U.S.
It’s the love of the challenge and commitment to precision that makes us who we are. CostQuest is a mission-driven organization, and our team works to do the right thing for the benefit of all.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, CostQuest has grown to have a team in Seattle, Washington, a presence in Washington, D.C., and a network of experts across the United States.
We look forward to working with you.
Our Mission
We help clients unleash new insights, make informed decisions, discover new possibilities, and unlock potential through unique expertise, proven tools, and comprehensive data. We seek to measure value not simply by revenue achieved but by the impact of our actions on our employees, colleagues, clients, and community.
Who we work with
Who we are
CostQuest’s culture is best described as a quiet confidence, grounded by humility and a commitment to precision. A “CostQuester” takes pride in navigating the weeds but understands the importance of making information approachable.
Our team is passionate about supporting the broadband industry in the grand effort of expanding internet access efficiently. We are devoted to tackling the most complex broadband challenges facing the industry to enable organizations to do so.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, we’ve grown to have a team in Seattle, Washington, a presence in Washington, D.C., and a network of experts across the United States.
Our values
We seek to measure value by the positive impact of our actions on our employees, colleagues, clients, and community.
Precision: We’re committed to precision; we work to get it right.
Integrity: We’re committed to always doing the right thing.
Excellence: We create excellent, effective, actionable solutions.
Respect: We’re respectful, supportive, and neutral.
Key achievements over the years:
- Created the model used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to distribute over $3B annually to deploy broadband access to high-cost areas.
- Valued over $1T in network infrastructure assets.
- Provided national cost models to the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to support the distribution of $42.5B for the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding program.
- Created the first ever location-level dataset focused on pinpointing the exact geographic location of serviceable consumer structures that require broadband services. We were awarded the FCC’s Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric data contract to help the FCC solve location accuracy issues related to broadband coverage reporting and support the FCC’s new Broadband Data Collection reporting and National Mapping processes.
- The Location Fabric data is now the industry standard dataset to track broadband service availability, distribute deployment funding, and track progress on funding initiatives.
- To recognize the substantial and valuable efforts of our employees, we became a fully employee-owned company in 2023.
We are grateful to our employees for all their great work on these efforts. Our passion for developing solutions to complex problems makes us who we are.
To that end, bring us your most complex problems, and we will bring some savvy earned over the years to help you tackle them.
Two ways to work with us:
Data: We build broadband-specific GIS (Geographic Information System) data and applications for service providers, government entities, engineers, consultants, and other organizations to effectively guide broadband deployment, business planning, and policy decisions. By first pinpointing all Broadband Serviceable Locations in the U.S., we then tie it with other insightful broadband attributes per location, such as service (technology) availability, available funding, cost to serve, demographics, and more, to support teams through the lifecycle of their broadband initiatives.
Consulting Services: Core to our roots, our consulting services team builds custom cost, business case, valuation, and appraisal models to detail the economics of broadband utilities infrastructure for service providers, engineers, governments, and more. CostQuest provides the modeling, input, training, maintenance, testimony, and witnessing that is required to support our services and data used in tax, advocacy, or public hearings. With technology-specific experts in fiber, fixed wireless, and mobility, as well as ASA appraisers on staff, we offer end-to-end solutions that stand up to the highest levels of scrutiny.
We offer government broadband advisory services, which include funding program design, cost models, broadband maps, and other custom solutions for federal, state, and local governments. We’ve worked with various government officials across the U.S. to develop strategies that connect communities lacking reliable broadband service. CostQuest also has trusted experts who have operated at the global scale, testified to Congress, built wireline cost models for U.S. subsidy programs, informed legislation, and worked with multiple international federal governments.