Occam gets Slic deployment deal

Slic Network Solutions, a unit of Nicholville Telephone that serves rural Western New York, is deploying Occam Networks’ BLC 6000 multiservice access platform and related GPON gear to support triple-play services, including tiered broadband Internet plans and IPTV

The deployment, affecting more than 700 households and 39 businesses in underserved portions of Franklin County, N.Y., is proceeding thanks to $5.2 million Slic gained through broadband stimulus and Broadband Initiatives Program grants and loans.

Slic and Occam are already on the project, with work expected to intensify by this fall on a 136-mile fiber network covering five townships. In addition to the MSAP, Slic also will be using Occam’s BLC 6322 GPON optical line terminal and, for end user premises, the ON 2541 optical network terminal.

News of the Slic deployment comes as other rural carriers have been busily launching upgrades, and Juan Vela, director of solutions marketing and strategy for Occam Networks, said the activity reflects a “somewhat cautious return to normal planning cycles.”

The activity comes follows roughly a year of strategic paralysis among some rural carriers that was induced by uncertainty about the federal government’s broadband stimulus program. The program has since become more efficient, though Vela said ongoing program challenges still weigh on the sector’s efforts to get projects rolling.

“The uncertainty behind the application requirements and conditions with broadband stimulus funds is now largely behind us, and that means rural providers are returning to traditional four-to-five-year planning windows driven by consumer and competitive pressures,” Vela said. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for continuous improvement [in the stimulus program]. In communicating with some stimulus winners, it is our understanding that availability of funding is somewhat inconsistent and can be a lengthy process. Winners don’t necessarily receive funding at time of public disclosure, so that can definitely be improved.”

Advance planning work done by stimulus applicants like Slic does help shorten the deployment timeline once the money arrives, Vela said.

Still, overall economic instability is another burden that continues to affect private funding options for broadband projects, a condition that Vela said could be exacerbated by proposed Universal Service Fund changes, part of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan.