In Northeast Colorado, agriculture is the main economic force. The irrigated dry land is excellent for growing wheat, corn, dry edible beans, popcorn and alfalfa. The area is sparsely populated and the population density outside of the small towns is less than one resident per square mile. Phillips County Telephone Company has been serving this type of rural area for over 100 years. As the company moved into other lines of business, it established PC Telcom and its subsidiaries to provide voice, video and data.
The Challenge
PC Telcom has a number of competitors that serve the small communities in their area but they are the only provider willing to serve the more rural areas. They currently serve their subscribers with a mix of broadband solutions including DSL, cable modem, fiber to the home and high-speed wireless. They need to stay ahead of any potential competitors by replacing their aging unlicensed wireless product with a newer technology that will increase their bandwidth capacity, reduce their maintenance costs and not be affected by interference.
The Solution
After examining a number of solutions, PC Telcom selected the Alvarion BreezeMAX Extreme 3650 for the licensed 3.65GHz frequency. The wireless broadband solution was implemented by Alvarion’s partner, Wireless Connections, an Ohio-based system integrator that specializes in building rural networks.The new commercial network will include more than 20 base stations and provide wireless broadband connectivity to the rural towns of Holyoke, Ovid, Paoli, Haxtun, Amherst, Julesburg, and the northern portion of Yuma County. Service plans with VoIP are also being designed for rollout in the near future.
The Benefits
Alvarion’s BreezeMAX Extreme 3650 lets PC Telcom capitalize on the business opportunity of the 3.65 GHz spectrum. This licensed spectrum — with very low licensing fees — gives PC Telcom exclusivity on its airwaves for maximizing their level of service as well their rate of return. Compared to other solutions, the BreezeMAX Extreme solution allows PC Telcom to more cost effectively serve their area and to support 20% more users. In addition, the Alvarion solution will let PC Telcom provide very robust and affordable connectivity-on-the-go to their technicians in their service vehicles.
“Alvarion’s wireless solution improves how we serve our existing customers and lets us serve new customers over a larger wireless footprint,” says Pete Markle, Director of Operations at PC Telcom. “We are very excited to soon offer VoIP in a number of areas. Until now, these
areas have been served by other LECs. VoIP will make our offering very competitive and let us become the provider of choice throughout northeast Colorado.”
About Wireless Connections
Wireless Connections is the leader in providing expertise needed for proper design, equipment purchases, implementation and maintenance of wireless networks in both licensed and unlicensed frequencies. The company’s typical clients include ISPs, utilities, telcos, emergency management agencies, municipalities and resellers across the country in need of a wireless solution (www.wirelessconnections.net).
