New Hampshire FastRoads (NH FastRoads) collaboration is moving forward with its effort to extend broadband services into underserved rural regions of the Granite State.
For this project, it will leverage Calix's (NYSE: CALX) E7-2 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) and 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs) to provide point-to-point gigabit Ethernet services to reach underserved subscribers in 35 communities throughout the western part of the state.
The Keene, N.H.-based company established a partnership with Network New Hampshire Now (NNHN), a group that's building a 470-mile middle mile network through a combination of a $44.5 million Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) Broadband Stimulus grant and $21.5 million in private and in-kind support.
FastRoads is a collaborative effort between the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority, the Monadnock Economic Development Corporation, the 34 towns of the Monadnock region, and WCNH.net (the eight towns of the Upper Valley–Lake Sunapee region).
As an open access network, FastRoads plans to leverage existing infrastructure that it says will allow area service providers to offer broadband services to the Upper Valley and Monadnock regions.
Initially, the project will provide a fiber link from Orford to Rindge, connecting 220 community institutions, including schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings, in the towns and cities along the path in addition to providing Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) connections to 1,300 Rindge and Enfield.
"New Hampshire as a whole has been underserved by broadband for years, with large portions of our population having to rely on dial-up and wireless services," said Carole Monroe, executive director of NH FastRoads. "This new fiber network will be a powerful tool to further the economic development of the state that began with the NNHN middle-mile project, while continuing to improve the lives of our existing residents and businesses and attract new business to the area."
FastRoads and NNHN is one of several projects in the Northeast developed by community groups to extend broadband into areas that previously had little service options.
For more:
- see the Calix release
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