The North Florida Broadband Authority (NFBA), a middle mile provider serving 14 rural counties in North Central Florida, will deploy Calix's (NYSE: CALX) B6 Ethernet Service Access Nodes (ESANs) for the next phase of its fixed wireless Ubiquitous Middle Mile project.
Working with network integrator and systems engineer Rapid Systems, this portion of the network will leverage Calix's B6 ESANs using 10 Gbps capable fiber access technology to aggregate microwave wireless traffic from about 102 wireless sites and interconnect over 300 North Central Florida community anchor institutions, including K-12 schools, universities, libraries, healthcare facilities, public safety organizations, and government agencies.
For Calix, the deal with NFBA is significant in that it's been chosen as an optical and last mile network vendor for 45 "last mile" and "middle mile" projects representing approximately $788 million.
Calix, of course, is only one of NFBA's partners.
Earlier this year, NFBA signed an agreement with Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT) for 1 Gbps wavelength circuits via its Extended On-Net assets and high-speed Internet Protocol (HSIP) services.
Funded by a $39.3 million broadband stimulus grant, which includes $30.1 million grant and in-kind matches of $9.2 million, the NFBA middle mile network will be able to extend broadband services to approximately 150,000 households and 28,400 businesses and public institutions.
For more:
- see the release
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