JANUARY 26, 2011 -- Broadband Stimulus award winners Moore and Liberty, Griggs County Telephone Company (MLGC), and Consolidated Telecom (Consolidated) have selected the Calix E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) from Calix Inc. for their respective "Fiber Forward" initiatives.
These projects will leverage the system’s broadband speeds of up to one gigabit per second (Gbps), as well as gigabit passive optical network (GPON) and Active Ethernet technologies, to bring advanced digital video services, fast data services, and high-quality voice services to the residents, businesses, and community institutions of the 12 targeted communities.
The awards together represent more than $37.5 million in grants, loans, and private investments to be used for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment, and will bring advanced broadband services to these “unserved” and “underserved” communities. Regional engineering, surveying, planning, and asset development firm Kadrmas, Lee, and Jackson (KLJ) has played a role in bringing these two projects to fruition, from providing assistance in the development of their Stimulus applications to continued network implementation support.
Serving eastern areas of the state, MLGC will deploy the Calix E7 ESAP and Calix 720GX/GE and 760GX families of ONTs to deliver broadband access to approximately 2,200 residents, businesses, and community institutions in and around Enderlin, Sharon, Glenfield, Sheldon, Finley, McHenry, and the rural areas of Cooperstown, and Binford, North Dakota. MLGC received $22.1 million in overall funds, including a $16.6 million grant and a $5.5 million loan for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment.
Consolidated’s project will benefit communities on the other side of the state, delivering advanced broadband services to rural areas in southwestern North Dakota. Consolidated plans to deploy the Calix E7 ESAP along with Calix’s 700GX/GE family of ONTs to bring voice, video, and data services to more than 1,400 households in rural Dickinson, Gladstone, Lefor, and New Hradec that currently have limited Internet access. Consolidated was awarded more than $15.4 million in total funding for the project, which includes a $5.8 million grant, a matching $5.8 million loan and private investments of $3.8 million for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment.