Canby Telcom is one of the latest examples of a small rural network operator that has made the decision to offer service at speeds up to a gigabit per second. The network will serve the operator’s home market of Canby, Oregon.
Rural network operators tend to be very focused on the needs of their community, and many communities recognize the important role that advanced broadband networks can play in supporting local economies.
Canby Telcom Gigabit
“Gigabit Internet service is an exciting development for the city and will set the community apart by making Canby a more attractive, future-proof location for manufacturers and businesses today,” said Renate Mengelberg, economic development director with the City of Canby, in a press release issued today about Canby Telcom’s decision to use equipment from Adtran to support the gigabit deployment announced earlier this year. “This is a game-changer for attracting new customers and jobs to the city.”
Perhaps the highest profile of rural gigabit deployments is the one C Spire has undertaken in Mississippi. But other small rural network operators that have announced gigabit plans include Western Iowa Networks, Blue Valley in Kansas, TDS Telecom in New Hampshire and Comporium in South Carolina.
Small rural electric utility companies also are getting in on the gigabit trend. These include Oklahoma-based Bolt Fiber Optic Services Missouri-based Co-Mo Comm, and Georgia-based Habersham EMC.
In some ways it’s not surprising that small rural network operators are making the decision to offer gigabit service. Many of them already have deployed fiber-to-the-home equipment, simplifying the task of upgrading to gigabit service and minimizing the cost of making that move.
Canby Telcom is no exception. It was an early adopter of FTTH, which should eliminate the need to deploy new fiber to support gigabit service. It is worth noting, though, that Canby didn’t initially use Adtran. The network operator made the decision to switch from a different vendor because it would have been difficult to scale services using the previous vendor’s offering, an Adtran spokesperson said.
