GeoLinks has a lot going on. Telecompetitor talked with GeoLinks President and Chief Operating Officer Ryan Adams about the fixed wireless provider’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) deployments, the gig+ speeds the company offers, the company’s holdings in the 28 GHz band and its financial backers.
“We have so many different opportunities,” said Adams.
Although the company to date has focused on California, Arizona and Nevada, that’s likely to change.
The company has more licenses in the 28 GHz band than any other license holder and, as Adams put it, “That will give us the opportunity to look into other states in the future.”
The company’s expansion plans are made possible, in part, by investment from Rock Mountain Capital and JLC Infrastructure. The investment from JLC, whose co-founders include former NBA player Earvin “Magic” Johnson, came in June.
At the time, GeoLinks said the investment would “help GeoLinks build upon their significant spectrum footprint, delivering broadband to urban and rural communities, businesses and government institutions beyond their current footprint.”
Company executives, however, still own the majority of the company, Adams said.
RDOF and Gigabit
When Telecompetitor talked to Adams this week, GeoLinks had just announced that it had begun offering speeds exceeding 1 Gbps using fixed wireless access (FWA) in several metro markets. Adams didn’t want to reveal GeoLink’s vendors but said the company uses a range of them because different offerings work better in different environments.
GeoLinks was the winning bidder for RDOF funding in parts of California, Arizona and Nevada, but was only approved for Arizona and Nevada because a California regulator didn’t approve the company’s application for eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) status – a fate that also befell at least one other fixed wireless network operator.
The GeoLinks RDOF wins for Arizona and Nevada total $84.6 million. The company bid to use a combination of fixed wireless and fiber broadband to support gigabit service.
According to Adams, GeoLinks will rely primarily on fiber for those deployments, which are currently in the planning stages. The company also is working to complete rural buildouts for which it won funding in the 2018 Connect America Fund (CAF) II auction.
