Denver-based Rise Broadband has been awarded $16.9 million through the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Broadband Experiment program to expand broadband and telephone in five states, including Iowa. The award was made to the company’s Skybeam LLC subsidiary, which was rebranded as Rise along with the rest of the organization in May. As one of the FCC’s award designees, Rise will ultimately offer wireless broadband service to more than 43,000 homes and businesses in rural parts of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. Postville-based Allamakee-Clayton Rural Electric Cooperative was also awarded $1.45 million through the program.The FCC Rural Broadband Experiment was created in 2014 to identify reliable, affordable alternatives of bringing high-speed broadband service to rural residents across the country. The program’s investment is $100 million, with no one bidder able to receive more than $20 million.