April 13, 2004 Sallisaw, OK-- The Sallisaw Municipal Authority (SMA), a utility trust authority of the City of Sallisaw, OK, has selected Wave7 Optics to supply the optical transport and subscriber premises equipment and Atlantic Engineering Group to provide engineering services for the city's new fiber to the premises (FTTP) network. Wave7's Last Mile Link optical access system includes core transport and gateway subscriber premises products that provide quality of service and Layer 3 intelligence at the network edge.
The City of Sallisaw, located in Eastern Oklahoma, is a community of approximately 4,100 households and businesses. After completing a detailed feasibility study in Q3 2003, SMA is starting the implementation program to provide broadband services to each residence and business in the community through a phased network construction program that will begin in late 2004 and complete in 2005. The FTTP network, representing a capital investment of $7 million, will deliver a triple play of broadband services (television programming, high speed Internet service, and telephone service)throughout the community.
"This fiber-optic network will bring the most advanced communications and entertainment services to our community. Our residents and businesses will directly benefit from the greater choice and service options we can deliver over fiber. Both Wave7 and Atlantic Engineering have a proven track record of successful municipal broadband projects, and Sallisaw will benefit from their experience as this initiative moves forward," said Keith Skelton, assistant city manager.
"We are very pleased to have been selected as the FTTP vendor of choice by the Sallisaw Municipal Authority. Sallisaw is very aggressive in its drive to deploy an optical broadband service network with the goal of improving the quality of life of its residents," said Emmanuel Vella, chief marketing officer, Wave7 Optics. "Wave7 Optics is now working with numerous municipalities, power utilities, and independent telephone companies to deploy advanced triple play networks throughout the United States."
Engineering and network design services will be performed by Atlantic Engineering Group, which has been involved in seven citywide FTTP deployments, to date. "We are honored that Sallisaw has selected Atlantic to participate in this state-of-the-art project," said Leonard Ray, vice president of business development for Atlantic Engineering Group. "Sallisaw is a terrific community and we look forward to providing its citizens with a world-class telecommunications network," continued Ray.
Uptown Services has been retained by Sallisaw to oversee the implementation of the system and complete the operational tasks to prepare the utility for launching this new line of business. According to Neil Shaw, principal at the firm, "The selection process was rigorous, and both Atlantic Engineering and Wave7 demonstrated a thorough understanding of the unique opportunity in Sallisaw as a smaller rural market. The proposed solutions are just what the city requires for a highly reliable network architecture."