A pair of Tier 3 telcos granted broadband stimulus funds will be rolling out IPTV products and other advanced services to their customers across new fiber networks.
Benton Ridge Telephone will use a mix of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Broadband Infrastructure Program grants and loans totaling almost $3.5 million to offer 100 Mbps data, video and voice services to underserved residential customers in the northwest area of Ohio.
Northwest Iowa's C-M-L Telephone says it plans to use its $1.5 million grant to build a fiber network that can deliver advanced services to its current market footprint, with plans to expand its service delivery area in the future.
Both companies have chosen Occam's BLC multiservice access platform to help them deliver the new services.
"There's a real community excitement at the prospect of bringing advanced broadband services such as IPTV to the area," said Bruce Johnson, President and CEO of C-M-L Telephone Cooperative. C-M-L has used Occam in the past for other fiber deployments.
Benton Ridge Telephone, meanwhile, plans to use the funds to extend high-speed services to rural communities that do not currently have access to wireline broadband.
"This award enables us to bring the rural areas up to speed, providing subscribers with the opportunity to improve their quality of life through better access to resources," said Rick Rostorfer, Telephone Systems Manager at Benton Ridge Telephone, which also is an existing Occam customer.
For more:
- see this release
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