RANGE TELEPHONE COOPERATIVE
Project
Range Telephone Cooperative is a Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) as well as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in Montana that has long been a Finley client. This time, they turned to Finley to help them expand their service offerings into the rural area surrounding Forsyth, MT. At issue was the best way serve this area: Fiber in the Loop (FITL) with copper drops or Fiber to the Premise (FTTP).
Solution
Range asked Finley to prepare a cost comparison of FITL and FTTP designs. After exploring the options, Finley discovered that a FTTP design using 2.4 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) electronics was the most cost-effective way to deliver high-quality service.
Finley engineers designed a dedicated fiber system that home runs the fibers either directly back to the Central Office or to two remote equipment cabinets. This design provides greater flexibility and provides more options for upgrading in the future.
Once the design was approved, Finley provided project management, permitting, construction oversight and electronic equipment procurement for the FTTP installation to approximately 300 residences, scattered over 350 square miles of rural Montana farm and ranch land.
Outcome
The project has expanded the service area and increased the customer base for Range. This system has the capacity to allow for increased data and Internet connections, as well as future services such as IPTV. In addition, with the home run fiber design Range will have the flexibility to add some electronic equipment and increase the capacity to a customer to 1 Gbps if needed.
