Alvarion heading to Main Street America
Main Street America has tapped Alvarion as a vendor for its rural broadband access deployment in the southeastern US, one of the largest Rural Utilities Service-funded initiatives in the US. Alvarion will deploy its BreezeMAX broadband gear in an unspecified number of Main Street’s 129 RUS-funding-eligible communities in Florida and Georgia.
Main Street will use BreezeMAX gear over licensed spectrum at 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz as well as in the unlicensed 3.65 GHz band, for which Alvarion’s equipment recently received RUS certification. 3.65 GHz has proved particular popular as a primary or supplementary access technology for rural and small broadband providers. Though unlicensed the FCC requires operators to register their equipment wherever they deploy, giving them limited rights to use the spectrum though not exclusivity.
Main Street, through its subsidiary Broadband South, has received $34 million in RUS funding so far to bring IP phone service and broadband access to un-served and underserved communities in Florida and Georgia.
