August 9, 2006 Minneapolis, MN -- Richland-Grant Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (RGTC), a Blue River, WS-based telecommunications organization, will implement ADC OmniReach fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) equipment in communities located in southwestern Wisconsin. RGTC will work with ADC to install OmniReach Multiport Service Terminals (MSTs) and fiber drop cables for rural delivery of Internet access, wide-area paging, voice mail, IPTV, local-area and wide-area networks.
RGTC's telecommunications projects are approved and funded, in part, by the Rural Development Utilities Program (RDUP). Through the program, ADC and RGTC will implement MSTs to support broadband FTTH build-outs in the following Wisconsin exchanges: Blue River, Boaz, Sabin, Soldiers Grove, and Gays Mills. The first community to receive the new infrastructure will be Soldiers Grove.
The addition of triple-play services to the RGTC product line required that the cooperative update its network design. RGTC's engineers attempted to reuse existing copper cables to the fullest extent, but experienced bandwidth limitations. As an alternative, RGTC opted to use fiber, but needed a way to streamline connectivity from a remote cabinet to new fiber drops in each home.
"We realized that there are limits to copper infrastructures, and ADC's fiber solutions offer optimal bandwidth, flexibility, and room for growth," said Dave Lull, general manager of RGTC. "Since working with ADC, we have found that fiber opens up a world of high-tech possibilities for our customers in rural communities, and we continue to explore new opportunities."