As Wi-Fi mesh approaches wither on the vine, municipal access got a shot in the arm form WiMAX on Wednesday. Regional service providers Pine Cellular, Pine Telephone and Choctaw Electric Cooperative announced at WiMAX World that they will deploy Nortel Networks’ WiMAX infrastructure in rural communities in southeastern Oklahoma. The idea is to bring 4G broadband to the area (some places are getting high-speed for the first time), while also adding a municipal dimension.
Pine and Choctaw’s network — deployed in the licensed 2.5GHz spectrum, will help improve community and emergency services in the coverage area. The wireless broadband service will be provided free of charge to the local city police and fire departments, as well as to public schools. Choctaw will also build three community centers, outfit them with computers and make free Internet access available.
Choctaw received a Community Connect Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to make it all happen.
"Choctaw Electric Cooperative exists, first and foremost, to serve the needs of our member-owners," said Terry Matlock, CEO of Choctaw. "Because it offers high capacity in a network that is simple to deploy and very economical to operate, WiMAX allows us to bring our communities new and highly beneficial broadband services that have not existed here before because it has not been profitable for larger operators to provide them."
The deployment will complement Pine Cellular's existing Nortel GSM voice network. With the two, Pine Cellular will offer its customers bundled voice and broadband services.
Choctaw Electric Cooperative www.choctawelectric.com
Pine Cellular www.pinecellular.com
Pine Telephone www.pinetelephone.com
