ADTRAN (NASDAQ:ADTN) is partnering with Holston Electric Cooperative and FiberRise to create a gigabit broadband network across the entire HEC cooperative membership in the Tennessee Valley. The companies plan to establish a broadband infrastructure that will connect the entire community while attracting industry and improving educational opportunities, healthcare and overall quality of life.
Holston Electric Cooperative General Manager James Sandlin said: "The electric business has become fairly challenging over the past decade. Members are using less electricity each year because the appliances and devices that co-op members buy today are more energy-efficient than those they replace. By investing in state-of-the-art broadband infrastructure with ADTRAN access solutions, Holston can diversify our member offerings with triple-play services of voice, video and broadband as well as benefit from newly enabled applications, such as smart grid management of our electrical network and smart home solutions."
HEC partnered with FiberRise to build its broadband network. FiberRise provided an implementation plan to support the deployment throughout a service area encompassing 25,000 residential and 5,500 commercial and industrial members. The deployment uses ADTRAN's Total Access 5000 Gigabit services platform with Ethernet Transport Optical Switch (ETOS-10) and GPON.
"HEC and other electric cooperatives continue to be at the forefront of delivering much needed broadband service to rural communities," said ADTRAN Vice President of Regional Service Provider Sales Brian Efimetz. "As our partnerships within the electric co-op market continue to expand significantly, we are proud to work with an ever-growing number of co-ops to serve their members' needs by delivering dependable solutions and services."