SANTA BARBARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Occam Networks®, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCNW), announced today that Benton Ridge Telephone Company and C-M-L Telephone Cooperative have chosen the BLC 6000 multiservice access platform (MSAP) to bring IPTV and other high-speed services to their respective regions. Using a combination of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP) grants and loans totaling almost $3.5M, Benton Ridge plans to offer 100 Mbps data, video and voice services to underserved residential customers in the northwest area of Ohio. C-M-L will use its $1.5M BIP grant to build a high-speed fiber network that can deliver today’s advanced services to residents and businesses in Northwest Iowa with the ability to expand its service delivery area in the future.
“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. “When we found we had been awarded stimulus funds, we naturally turned to Occam as our access partner for the deployment. We had chosen Occam for our previous FTTH deployments and had found that an Occam-powered Active Ethernet network had a lot more firepower than anything else we had used in the past. Because of our good experience with Occam and their excellent customer service, it was natural for us to work with them again on this latest project.”
In addition to serving residential customers, Johnson also noted that the new high-speed network will greatly benefit small business owners in the area, many of whom work directly out of their homes. Local construction firms will tap into the network to send plans back and forth to partners and contractors. Additionally, other businesses, such as a local grain elevator company, can leverage the higher performance network for more efficient communications between its satellite offices.
Benton Ridge Telephone, another Broadband Stimulus recipient, plans to use the funds to extend high-speed services outside of the cities in its serving area to rural communities that do not currently have access to wireline broadband.
“Throughout our 100-year history, we have consistently demonstrated our ability to incorporate and adapt new technological advances to better serve our customers, “ said Rick Rostorfer, Telephone Systems Manager at Benton Ridge Telephone. “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. When it came down to choosing an access supplier partner, we chose Occam because we were 100 percent satisfied with its serviceability and performance. When you have a solution that works that well, you definitely stick with it.”
“Benton Ridge and C-M-L have the experience, commitment and now with broadband stimulus funding, the resources needed to ignite growth and development in rural communities,” said Juan Vela, Director, Solutions Marketing and Strategy for Occam Networks. “As a long-standing partner to both companies, we have worked with these service providers to stay ahead of their requirements with the products and technologies that will address the needs of their subscribers while protecting their investment over the coming years. We look forward to serving them in the future as they address the twin challenges of expanding their subscriber base and service offerings.”
