Adams NetWorks in Illinois and Chariton Valley Communications in Missouri have each launched fixed LTE services for rural customers using Globecomm Systems' hosted platform.
Adams, a regional telco providing Internet, voice and video services, is one of Globecomm's first customers to deploy a LTE hosted hybrid model, which it is using to launch service in the 700 MHz band. Globecomm is hosting the core equipment at its Hauppauge, N.Y., facility while its Converged Packet Gateway (CPG) is located at Adams' data center in Quincy, Ill.
"The hybrid network reduces costs, and customer data traffic stays local to the Adams network," Globecomm said.
Globecomm first announced its contract with Chariton Valley one year ago. Chariton Valley is using the vendor's hosted LTE platform to offer broadband service over its lower 700 MHz spectrum to home network subscribers.
Crediting Globecomm's solutions, Jim Simon, general manager of the Chariton Valley family of companies, said: "We are now able to offer the latest in high speed wireless broadband services at competitive prices to rural consumers in northern Missouri."
Some smaller rural carriers are opting to hold off on LTE deployments, while others have plunged full-steam ahead into the market for high-speed wireless connections. Chariton Valley has been one of the aggressive carriers, as it already provides mobile LTE service as a member of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE: VZ) LTE in Rural America program, which lets rural carriers lease Verizon's 700 MHz Band 13 spectrum and build out a network that seamlessly roams onto Verizon's nationwide LTE network. Chariton signed up for the program in September 2011.
Verizon said in March that LRA networks cover 2.2 million people, more than 58,000 square miles and service more than 300,000 people every day.
In March 2014, Globecomm also announced that Evolve Broadband, a regional carrier providing voice and data products and services throughout 13 counties in Texas, had finished 35 percent of its LTE network buildout and was using Globecomm's hosted LTE core as well as the vendor's CPG. At the time, Lowell Feldman, CEO of Evolve, said the rural carrier was working to establish a commercially reasonable roaming pact with AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T).
Globecomm was taken private in December 2013, when it was acquired by an investor group led by Wasserstein & Co.
For more:
- see this Globecomm release
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