Silver Star Telephone Brings Gigabit Fiber to 12,000 Premises

PETALUMA, CA ? Two-time broadband stimulus award winner Silver Star Telephone Company is bringing fiber-to-the-home connections to as many as 10,200 households, 1,900 businesses, and a variety of community anchor institutions in northern Wyoming and southern Idaho, using GPON and active Ethernet technologies with the Calix E7 Ethernet Services Access Platform (ESAP).

Silver Star's two BTOP-funded projects will enhance broadband in 16 counties and dozens of rural communities. Both projects will make use of the E7 platform, including the E7-20 multiterabit ESAP and modular E7-2 ESAP, as well as the 700GE family of optical network terminals. Silver Star is one of the first Calix customers to deploy the E7-20, a high-capacity, low-latency, all-fiber access concentrator designed for an all-video world.

Services provided will include advanced voice, IPTV and ultra-high-speed data services of up to 1 Gbps and transport services of 10 Gbps. Project funding includes nearly $10.7 million in National Telecommunications and Information Administration grants and $2.9 million in private investments.

"These projects fill a gap that had historically limited the broadband opportunities available to the citizens, businesses, and institutions on the Wyoming and Idaho border," says Ron McCue, COO of Silver Star. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect the region to the rest of Wyoming's fiber optic network and increase the capacity, reliability and speed with which we communicate. We have been searching for viable ways to close this gap for years, and the combination of these funds and the technology and expertise of our long-time partner Calix will allow us to bring our vision of broadband opportunity for this region to fruition."