LocaLoop and Runcom partner on rural 4G deployment solution

Rural network operators planning to deploy 4G gained another option as the result of a partnership announced today between two suppliers specializing in the rural market. The partners are LocaLoop, a company that offers a cloud-based network operations center solution, and Runcom, a 4G equipment manufacturer. The partnership aims to provide rural network operators with a cost-effective LTE or WiMax deployment solution targeted for their unique needs.

“We could totally change the economic formula for deploying broadband in low-density areas,” said LocaLoop founder Carl-Johan Torarp in an interview with Connected Planet.

Most wireless equipment is optimized for high-density markets and is too costly for rural areas, Torarp said. Most manufacturers, he said, have built their equipment in “a very centralized, very expensive way.”

The Runcom equipment is designed specifically with lower-density markets in mind—and when it is combined with a software-as-a-service approach to network operations and business management from LocaLoop, Torarp said, “you have a very strong business case and you can become profitable very fast.”

Wireless ISPs are primary target
Wireless Internet service providers are the primary target market for the partners, but rural telcos also may have interest in the partners’ offering. Telcos deploying 4G, however, may want to keep those operations separate from their existing business, using the LocaLoop solution only for wireless services, Torarp said.

The LocaLoop offering is tailor-made for today’s end users who want “what they want when they want it,” said Torarp. “They don’t want bundling or long-term contracts or credit checks,” he said, noting that the LocaLoop platform will support prepaid billing using an electronic billing approach.

LocaLoop announced several weeks ago that municipal network operator Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services would use the LocaLoop cloud-based offering to support a WiMax network along the fiber ring that the organization is building with broadband stimulus funding. LocaLoop also is in the process of signing up more customers, some of whom are likely to use Runcom equipment as well.

The LocaLoop/ Runcom announcement comes just days after NetAmerica and Ericsson announced a partnership that also aims to improve the economics of rural 4G deployments.