Source: Alcatel Lucent Press Release

The City of Opelika, Alabama will soon be providing residents with the ability to monitor and manage their own energy consumption to help save money and make their homes greener with the help of smart grid technology from Alcatel-Lucent. A new fiber optic network will also give residents the opportunity to access new high-quality broadband voice, data and video services, including lightning-fast Internet access, IPTV and video-on-demand services.

A new high-capacity ‘Fiber-to-the-home’ (FTTH) network will bring these broadband connections to households and businesses and allow Opelika Power Services to extend the reach of its ‘smart grid’, supporting new power sensors and smart meters across the city.

Residents will be offered advanced meter reading devices providing them with real-time information about the amount of energy being used in their households.  As a result, they will be able to identify when their usage is at a peak and when there are opportunities, day or night, to reduce consumption and save money.

Under the three-year project Alcatel-Lucent will deliver a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) optical backbone network in the City of Opelika based on Alcatel-Lucent’s Gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology. The project also includes full services and integration of the Alcatel-Lucent ‘Triple Play Express’ solution for regional operators. To allow the City of Opelika to deliver voice, data and video to residents, Alcatel-Lucent’s Optical Network Terminal will be deployed at residences and the 7750 Ethernet Service Switch will provide service aggregation, bandwidth management and subscriber control.  Alcatel-Lucent has also been selected as the integrator of the City of Opelika’s IPTV service, which runs on the Microsoft Mediaroom solution.

Source: NTS Press Release

NTS, Inc., f/k/a Xfone, Inc. announced that it has begun construction of its high speed Fiber-To-The-Premise (FTTP) Network in southern Louisiana. As the build out progresses, the fiber network will eventually include the communities of Hammond, Ponchatoula, Natalbany, Tickfaw, Independence and Amite, Louisiana, adding approximately 11,500 FTTP passings. A WiMAX service extension overlay will also bring advanced broadband services to towns in the St. Helena, Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes.

The Company’s southern Louisiana build out is funded by approximately $36.1 million in federal stimulus grants and loans.

In addition to breaking ground in Louisiana, NTS also announced that it has connected its first customers in Wilson, Texas and in Meadow, Texas. NTS’s ongoing fiber build out, when completed, is expected to reach 19 new communities in Texas and Louisiana, bringing the Company’s total FTTP passings to approximately 50,000. In addition to its presence in Wilson, NTS has established its FTTP network in the towns of Lubbock, Levelland, Smyer, Wolfforth, Littlefield, Burkburnett, Brownfield, Whitharral and Slaton, Texas.

Source: GCI Press Release

General Communication, Inc. (GCI) (Nasdaq:GNCMA) and its wholly owned subsidiary, United Utilities, Inc. (UUI), announced their plan to provide terrestrial broadband Internet service to the residents of 65 remote, rural communities in Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

At the end of 2011, a year ahead of schedule, UUI completed the construction of TERRA-Southwest, the first terrestrial broadband transport network to link Anchorage and the 65 communities. At the beginning of 2012, TERRA-Southwest began providing terrestrial broadband service to critical community service providers such as schools, hospitals, and health clinics.

As a result of the early completion of TERRA-Southwest, GCI and UUI have accelerated their plans to deploy terrestrial broadband Internet service in the 65 TERRA-Southwest communities. The first phase of deployment will begin in June and should be completed by mid-October of 2012, a year ahead of schedule.

GCI and UUI will offer a range of new Internet service plans starting as low as $24.99 per month. In communities currently served by the satellite-based WISP system, download speeds will be eight to 16 times faster than what is available today on similarly priced plans. The new Internet service plans will be delivered over different networks depending on the community.

In TERRA-Southwest communities other than Bethel and Dillingham, the plans will be delivered over newly deployed Wi-Fi wireless networks and possibly over wireline DSL (digital subscriber line) networks in some UUI communities. Both GCI and UUI will provide the plans in all UUI communities.

Since Wi-Fi coverage is affected by many factors, including the unique topographic features of each community, the first phase of the Wi-Fi deployment may not achieve full availability of the service plans throughout a given community. After the first phase is complete, GCI and UUI will evaluate the resulting coverage and determine whether additional steps are needed to achieve additional coverage.

In Bethel, the plans will be delivered over GCI's existing video network and UUI's DSL network. GCI is still working on a service delivery solution in Dillingham, as GCI does not own a local telephone or video network and Dillingham's geographic layout is not ideal for the installation of Wi-Fi service.

GCI will also make wholesale service plans available to other local carriers in the TERRA-Southwest service area, which will enable those carriers to sell Internet service to their customers.

Source: Calix Press Release

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) announced that the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) has selected the Calix Unified Access Portfolio and Calix Professional Services to support and implement its Broadband Linking the American Samoa Territory ("BLAST") Project, which will deliver ubiquitous advanced broadband services across the islands of American Samoa.

The USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) funded the Project through a $91 million Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) award consisting of a combined grant and loan for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment. The BLAST Project will transform the islands' legacy copper network into an advanced fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure.

ASTCA has announced its intention to build this new network with the Ethernet eXtensible Architecture (EXA) Powered Calix access equipment, including C7 Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP) and E7 Ethernet Service Access Platforms (ESAPs), as well as the 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs). The Calix Professional Services team will serve as the program manager for the BLAST Project, working with key members of Calix Compatible Solutions Assurance Program to manage the various components of the network build, while providing network engineering, furnishing, and installation services.

Over 11,500 residences, businesses, and anchor institutions will be served by this network, which will deliver ultra-high-speed data, next-generation voice services, and new internet protocol television (IPTV) services across the islands.