Broadband stimulus winner selects Exalt for microwave middle-mile network

Although most awards in the broadband stimulus program went to fiber-based projects, there were some wireless winners—and one of the most unique wireless awards went to Arizona Nevada Tower Corp. for a microwave-based middle mile network in Nevada.

Arizona Nevada Tower operates cell towers in rural areas of the state, leasing capacity to multiple wireless network operators. The new middle mile network will interconnect those towers, as well as providing backhaul connectivity to wireless Internet and other service providers. Arizona Nevada Tower operates its own wireless ISP business through a separate business unit, which will be able to use the microwave backhaul network.

Initially the network is designed to support transport at 500 Mb/s but, according to Hayes, that capacity can easily be expanded.

“The system is designed with a myriad of uses in mind,” said Kevin Hayes, Arizona Nevada Tower vice president, in an interview.

Arizona Tower’s stimulus win, awarded by the Rural Utilities Service, is for a total of $7.6 million. Thirty percent of that total is in the form of a loan, with the rest awarded as a grant.

Backup capability was key

Arizona Nevada Tower opted to use microwave for its middle mile project because in the rural areas where the company operates, “access to fiber doesn’t exist for the most part,” said Hayes.

Like many broadband stimulus winners (CP: Stimulus winners stick with current gear vendors), Arizona Nevada Tower has opted to use a vendor with which the company already has experience for its project. The network operator announced today that it is using microwave radios from Exalt Communications for the stimulus project.

“We weren’t married to Exalt,” Hayes said. But although the network operator considered other vendors, it found that none of the others had the right mix of capabilities.

One of the things that Arizona Nevada Tower really liked about the Exalt equipment was that it could support communications using licensed or unlicensed frequencies. Arizona Nevada Tower plans to use that capability to support backup communications.

“It’s a level of redundancy that was very attractive to us,” said Hayes.
Arizona Nevada Tower is architecting its microwave backhaul network based on microwave coverage range of 40 miles wherever possible. “Our standard is 40 miles; we try not to exceed that,” Hayes said.