May 23, 2005 Minneapolis, MN -- Optical Solutions (OSI) today announced that North Dakota's Red River Rural Telephone Association, an independent telephone cooperative, has selected the company's FiberPath 500 GPON FTTP system to replace aging copper infrastructure in several of the co-op's rural exchanges.
Based in Abercrombie, North Dakota, the co-op supports 4,800 access lines serving the region that divides southeastern North Dakota and west-central Minnesota. Starting last spring, the co-op initiated a multi-year fiber overbuild project that will ultimately span eight communities and 2,455 customers. According to a press release, the co-op will use the GPON FTTP system to deliver multiple lines of voice, data up to 3-Mbit/sec or greater, and eventually video services.
"As a cooperative we are focused on satisfying the needs of our member-owners, whether they live in town or beyond the city limits," says Chuck Deisbeck, Red River's network operations manager. "We knew when the time came to put a plow in the ground, it was going to be for fiber, not copper, because it would ensure our members have bandwidth for today's services as well as tomorrow's."
According to the release, the co-op also decided "up-front" on a passive optical network (PON) platform, versus an active electronic system.
"Lightning and moisture are ongoing issues for us, and when your techs have to travel dozens of miles back and forth repairing electronics, the time and expense add up," continues Deisbeck.
OSI says its GPON FTTP technology provides the bandwidth necessary for delivering advanced voice, video, and data services, and for effectively future-proofing access network infrastructure. The company says the platform's passive optical architecture saves operations costs by eliminating high-maintenance active electronics in the outside plant while providing long-distance connectivity from a central office.
"By building FTTP networks and delivering superlative bandwidth to customers, cooperatives like Red River are ensuring that rural America is not left behind in the Internet Age," concludes Mike Dagenais, president and CEO of Optical Solutions.