Welcome! Thank you for your interest in the International Flight Program

The International Flight Program (Program) provides a minimum revenue guarantee incentive to help attract new international flights to Missouri.  The Missouri General Assembly appropriated $5 million to the Department of Economic Development (Department) in House Bill 20 at § 20.095 (2023).  Applications to the program must be submitted no later than 11:59pm on July 31, 2024.

Please review the information and links below for helpful resources and tips for completing your electronic submission.  

Getting Started - Review the International Flight Program Guidelines prior to submitting to the program to ensure understanding of the eligibility and program requirements.  

Who should create the Submittable account?  The email address of the individual creating the Submittable account will be the primary contact for communication between the Department of Economic Development (DED) and the submitter. This email address will receive notifications about submission status and will be the recipient of any questions related to your submission. 

Program Related Questions? 

Tips for working with Submittable 

  • You can save a draft of your submission if you need to come back to it later; however, once submitted your application cannot be edited.  
  • You can invite people to collaborate on your submission.
  • Submittable works best on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Internet Explorer is not supported. Please make sure you are using a supported browser.
  • We will follow up with you about your submission by email. Please be sure to safelist notification emails from Submittable and check the email you used to sign up for your Submittable account regularly.

Technical Submittable Questions? 

We look forward to working with you!  

The Federal Initiatives Team

Welcome to the Cell Towers Grant Program: Challenge Application!

Applications for this challenge process are due no later than 11:59 pm on December 10, 2023.

To ensure transparency and best use of taxpayer funds, the application process includes a proposed service area challenge process. DED will publish on its website a map with the proposed projects’ service areas and a challenge application through the MO Federal Initiatives Grant Portal.

A cellular service provider that provides existing service in a proposed service area may submit to DED a written challenge to an application based on its proposed service area.

The challenge must contain information and documentation demonstrating that:

  • The challenging provider currently provides cellular service to retail customers at the minimum quality service levels from a tower within 5 miles of the proposed new tower.

          OR

  • The challenging provider has begun substantive construction to provide cellular service to retail customers from a tower within 5 miles of the proposed new tower.

The challenge must include a map file and all relevant information when submitting the challenge. Failure to include all details may result in a failed challenge. Challengers will be expected to submit a generalized, “clean” shapefile to DED to share with an Applicant to aid with amending the project service area if that is the outcome of a challenge.

Within three business days of receiving a challenge, DED will notify the applicant of the challenge. The challenged applicant has 10 business days from receipt of the challenge to provide DED with all relevant information regarding how the applicant would like to proceed. Failure to provide all relevant information within the 10 business day time period could result in the challenge being successful and the application being denied.

OBD reserves the right to request additional information from a challenging provider to substantiate the challenge. Upon OBD ’s determination that a challenge is successful, OBD will not fund the challenged portion of an application. OBD will notify the applicant and the challenging provider of its decision. OBD will incorporate challenge results into its approvals and denials of Program applications.

IMPORTANT NOTE

For each challenge found to be successful, the challenger must submit documentation to DED no later than 12 months from the Program award date, substantiating that the challenger has fulfilled its commitment made during its challenge. If the challenging entity challenges on the basis of substantive construction and is successful, it would be required to provide service to the area it challenged for at least 5 years.

If DED denies an application as a result of a challenge, and the challenging provider does not fulfill its commitment to provide cellular service in the service area, DED will not consider another challenge from that provider for any remaining Program grant rounds, unless DED determines the challenging provider’s failure to fulfill the commitment was due to unforeseeable and disastrous circumstances beyond the challenger's control, including, but not limited to: flood, tornado, earthquake, or civil unrest, and the provider took reasonable steps to complete the project in light of the circumstances.

Challenge Certification

Download, complete, sign and notarize the Challenge Certification document to upload to your Challenge Application. 

Getting Started

Review the Cell Towers Grant Program Guidelines prior to completing this application to ensure understanding of the program and requirements. 

Consult the Cell Towers Challenge Map to see proposed project locations and determine potential overlap.

Who should create the Submittable account?

The email address of the individual creating the Submittable account will be the primary contact for communication between OBD and the challenger. This email address will receive notifications about challenge status and will be the recipient of any questions regarding your challenge.

Each Submittable account is able to submit multiple challenges. Each account must complete the challenge form and submit it prior to beginning additional challenges. 

Program Related Questions?

Tips for working with Submittable

  • You can save a draft of your work if you would like to finish filling out the form at a later date.
  • You can invite people to collaborate on a submission.
  • Submittable works best on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Internet Explorer is not supported. Please make sure you are using a supported browser.
  • We will follow up with you about your submission by email. Please be sure to safelist notification emails from Submittable and check the email you used to sign up for your Submittable account regularly.

Technical Submittable Questions?

We look forward to working with you!

The Missouri DED Office of Broadband Development