Broadband infrastructure companies have waited patiently for rural service providers to actually start spending money from the broadband stimulus program. That process began over the spring and summer of 2010, and companies like Occam, Adtran, and Calix, traditional broadband access vendors, are now cashing-in. But it’s not just the access guys who want in.
GENBAND, a provider of switching equipment, who purchased Nortel’s switching assets out of bankruptcy, is in the hunt for stimulus cash too. They just announced deals with Halstad Telephone Company (HTC), Federated Telephone Cooperative and Farmers Mutual Telephone Company for IP switching equipment, based in part on $11.7 million in broadband stimulus funds awarded to those three companies.
Considering stimulus funds are designed to bring broadband access to unserved and underserved residential and business customers, vendors who provide DSL, FTTH, cable broadband, and broadband wireless equipment are the most likely to benefit. Switching equipment like that provided by GENBAND may be a secondary beneficiary of this program, but I wonder if these companies would have upgraded their switching anyway, regardless of broadband stimulus funding.
Regardless, there’s lots of money floating around for the build out of broadband networks. Vendors of all kinds, GENBAND included, will chase it.
