Rural Wireless Association Members and Mimosa Networks Collaborate to Close the Digital Divide Across Rural America

September 11, 2018

Key Members to Deliver Fiber-Fast Wireless Broadband to Unserved and Underserved Subscribers From Montana to Georgia

Santa Clara, CA – In a move demonstrating the strong momentum towards closing the digital divide, six key members of the Rural Wireless Association (RWA) today announced they have chosen Mimosa Networks to deploy fixed wireless solutions across the United States. The Rural Wireless Association is a Washington, DC-based trade association whose members are united in a common goal to drive wireless telecom and broadband policy to strengthen rural America for the benefit of all of America.

As part of an initiative designed to reach tens of thousands of unserved and underserved consumers and businesses in rural areas, RWA members are deploying Mimosa fiber-fast solutions in small towns and cities across the country. These rural wireless carriers offer residential and business services including tiered broadband services, home and business internet, voice, video, gaming and security. Participating members include:

• Nemont Telephone, Montana
• Pioneer, Oklahoma
• Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Oklahoma
• United Telcom, Kansas
• Silver Star Communications, Wyoming
• Public Service Communications, Georgia
   

With both legacy wireline and wireless infrastructure, these rural wireless carriers are able to accelerate the provisioning of fiber-fast fixed wireless broadband for their subscribers by leveraging the towers that are already in place for their mobile networks. With Mimosa’s fixed wireless technology, they are able to increase the capacity to communities with point-to-point (PTP) backhaul and point-to-multipoint (PTMP) solutions in Tower and MicroPoP architectures, improve broadband service offerings with increased speeds, and raise the penetration rate in their service areas. The goal is to raise the overall user experience for all of their customers.
 

“RWA was formed out of the necessity to address the quality of life in rural America by exceeding the wireless communication needs of our members’ constituents in the areas that they cover,” said RWA President and Nemont Telephone Cooperative CEO, Mike Kilgore. “Broadband is becoming just as critical as electricity to our communities, and we are focused on leveraging all available means to provide the same quality of broadband services with fixed wireless technology.”

In certain areas, the carriers have used Mimosa fixed wireless deployments to replace legacy fixed wireless solutions that were not delivering the capacity or user experience required. In other areas, they have deployed fixed wireless solutions to offload fixed wireless data services from the expensive and maxed-out LTE equipment. The carriers have also installed new fixed wireless deployments to extend capacity to specific locations and communities, bringing broadband service offerings to users previously relegated to unreliable and expensive satellite connectivity. With data limits and high latency, satellite-based internet has been an issue for business, education and gaming applications.

Kilgore continued, “In many of these areas, satellite is the only available broadband, and we have heard consistent complaints from subscribers needing a higher quality broadband experience. With our vertical assets already in place, we can rapidly deploy Mimosa’s Hybrid-Fiber-Wireless solutions to deliver fiber-fast wireless broadband service offerings at a fraction of the cost of other technology solutions.”

According to Kilgore, RWA members have been impressed with Mimosa’s PTMP solutions and witnessed sustained speeds of greater than 100 Mbps for subscribers that are several miles away. “We understand the critical need of getting our subscribers connected to the internet and giving them the same advantages, accessibility and user experience as those in urban and suburban areas. Mimosa provides RWA members with the ability to reach customers in a faster-time-to-market and return-on-investment (ROI) than they had ever planned. It gives us great satisfaction that we are making a difference and improving people’s lives.”

RWA Member and CEO of Pioneer Telephone, Richard Ruhl agrees. “At just a fraction of the cost of LTE equipment, Mimosa fixed wireless broadband offers us an ideal solution to maximize our network by offloading traffic from these expensive deployments. Not only are Mimosa products incredibly easy to install, configure and operate, they also offer the reliability and industry-leading price performance we were looking for.”

Collectively the carriers are deploying the entire family of Mimosa products for both PTP and PTMP links, including Mimosa A5/A5c access devices, B11 and B24 backhaul radios, C5/C5c client devices and N5-360 antennas. Being well versed in wireless technology coupled with Mimosa’s comprehensive on-site support, RWA members were able to quickly get trained on the equipment and have the fixed wireless technology up and operational in record time. In addition, Mimosa’s free, online Network Design Tool (NDT) provides carriers with the ability to strategically select, plan and design their network before making important investment decisions, to achieve the best return on investment and address the most critical subscribers.

“It has been a privilege to partner with these influential and innovative carriers on such an important initiative of delivering a high-quality broadband experience for rural consumers and businesses across America,” said John Colvin, SVP of Global Field Operations at Mimosa. “With a common goal of connecting the unconnected in the fastest time-to-market and at the lowest cost for deployment, our mutually shared values will enable subscribers to enjoy fiber-fast wireless broadband and experience the ultimate broadband experience at a fraction of the cost. Following the recent announcement of CAF II awards, we believe that our fiber-fast wireless broadband solutions are the perfect fit for meeting and exceeding the objectives of the FCC.”

Mimosa will be at MWC Americas in Los Angeles, September 12-14 (Booth W.512), NTCA Fall Conference in Seattle, September 16-19, and at WISPAPLOOZA in Las Vegas, October 8-12

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About RWA The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) is a Washington, DC-based trade association that ensures rural wireless carriers with under 100,000 subscribers have a strong voice in our nation’s capital. RWA members are united in a common goal to drive wireless telecom and broadband policy to strengthen rural America for the benefit of all of America. RWA is dedicated to advocating for improving the quality of life in rural America by ensuring the availability of wireless communications for those living, working and traveling within those communities. RWA’s members are constantly working on an array of topics including the proliferation of broadband in their serving area, Mobility Fund Phase 2, data roaming and other issues that seek to enhance wireless communications in rural America.

About Mimosa Networks

Mimosa Networks is the global technology leader in wireless broadband solutions, delivering fiber-fast connectivity to service providers and enterprise, industrial and government operators worldwide. Mimosa access, backhaul, and client solutions are deployed in a hybrid-fiber-wireless architecture, and engineered for both Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint connections, across a variety of diverse applications including residential and business high-speed internet access, surveillance, agribusiness, education and hospitality networking. Mimosa's technology delivers unprecedented levels of cost-effective spectral efficiency, allowing scarce spectrum to be concurrently and reliably shared across networks. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Mimosa is sold worldwide by members of Mimosa’s partner program. For more information, visit www.mimosa.co.