South Dakota Companies Select Calix for Regional FTTH Projects

PETALUMA, CA — Two South Dakota broadband stimulus award winners — TrioTel Communications and Midstate Communications — have selected the Calix Unified Access portfolio to bring advanced broadband services to subscribers in unserved and underserved areas of South Dakota.

According to Calix, both TrioTel and Midstate are pulling fiber deep into rural communities to bring extremely fast broadband services, including IPTV, ultra high-speed data and advanced VoIP services, as well as new opportunities to their subscribers. In aggregate, these awards amount to nearly $21.4 million, which include funding for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, as well as access equipment. The addition of the TrioTel and Midstate projects brings the total number of publicly announced Calix awarded broadband stimulus projects across the Dakotas to 11 projects, amounting to more than $113 million in overall funds.

TrioTel will use its $12.3 million award, which consists of a $8.6 million grant and a $3.7 million loan, to offer advanced broadband services over GPON technology to six South Dakota communities and their surrounding rural areas. TrioTel will leverage the Calix C7 Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP) as well as the 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs) to implement a world-class broadband infrastructure across these rural communities.

"This stimulus award will truly benefit our communities, bringing a powerful broadband infrastructure that will promote business development, technology innovation and job growth throughout our area," says Bryan Roth, general manager and CEO at TrioTel. "With a fiber network in place, our customers will have fast, high-quality Internet and access to the latest video technology."

"Viable Ways to Close the Gap"
Midstate will use its $6.4 million grant and $2.7 million loan to provide advanced high-speed broadband across a point-to-point gigabit Ethernet network capable of delivering symmetrical speeds of up to 1 Gbps to subscribers in the underserved and unserved areas of Chamberlain and Oacoma, S.D. Leveraging the Calix B6 Ethernet Service Access Node (ESAN) and the 700GE family of ONTs, Midstate will deliver advanced IPTV, ultra high-speed data services, and reliable voice services delivered over media gateway control protocol (MGCP).

"When it comes to today's advanced technology and broadband needs, the citizens living beyond the boundaries of the Chamberlain and Oacoma communities have historically been underserved, and in most cases, unserved," says Mark Benton, general manager at Midstate. "We have been searching for viable ways to close this gap, and these funds, in combination with Calix technology and expertise, allow us to bring the promise of further economic development to our area through the availability of advanced broadband."