Three Midwest Tel Net members select Occam's platform to increase service

Three Midwest Tel Net members select Occam's platform to increase service

Wisconsin – Three members of the Midwest Tel Net consortium have selected Occam Networks‘ BLC 6000 platform to deliver voice, video and high-speed data to the companies’ rural residential and small business subscribers, Occam announced Wednesday. The participating companies are Hillsboro Telephone Co. Inc., LaValle Telephone Cooperative and Richland-Grant Telephone Cooperative.
Hillsboro-based Hillsboro Telephone Co. was the first local carrier in Wisconsin to select and deploy the BLC 6000 platform, a complete loop carrier system using Ethernet and Internet protocol (IP) as core transport and service protocols. Today, Hillsboro has five different types of loop carriers in their network. Over the next year and a half the carrier will replace these with the BLC 6000, installing multiple platforms at each site. To date, Hillsboro has installed the BLC in central office (CO) and remote office locations and is delivering voice, data and video to its subscribers.
“Our goal in moving to a single platform was for every line to be a high-speed line that could deliver data and video, as well as voice,” said Don Hammer, plant supervisor for Hillsboro.
LaValle-based LaValle Telephone Cooperative plans to provide 100 percent of its subscribers with advanced broadband services by the end of 2005. The carrier will provide traditional voice service, digital subscriber line (DSL) service and video, as well as position itself to deliver voice over IP (VoIP). Over the next 18 months, LaValle will install the BLC 6000 in two CO exchanges and 10 remote sites. In mid-April it expects to begin delivering triple play services.
Blue River-based Richland-Grant Telephone Cooperative plans to install the BLC 6000 in five COs and 23 remotes, using the central office BLCs as DSLAMs to feed the remotes. It expects to install the BLCs in 14 remotes this year and to complete the project by the end of 2005. With the completion, Richland-Grant will provide all of its 3,000 subscribers with advanced broadband services.
“I strongly believe that Ethernet and IP are the future of telecommunications,” said Dave Lull, general manager for LaValle and Richland-Grant. “These technologies make the BLC 6000 much easier to install, configure and manage than other loop carrier solutions. They provide us with a greater flexibility that saves us time, and every minute we save has a dollar value.”
Occam Networks is based in Santa Barbara, Calif. and supplies Ethernet and IP-based loop carrier equipment to telecommunications companies.