CENTURYTEL JUMP-STARTS MONTANA EXPANSION

With vistas that compare to anything in Colorado, Kalispell, Mont., has quickly become one of the fastest-growing retirement/vacation spots/summer home locations for those seeking refuge from the insane real estate prices of moneyed markets like Vail and Aspen.

For CenturyTel, the local incumbent in Kalispell, though, the expansion put a major strain on a network that was meant to serve what was a relatively sleepy town. The Flathead Valley, of which Kalispell is part, currently has about around 45,000 residential units. According to a recently completed government projection, there will be an additional 75,000 by 2030.

“There's not just huge growth, but it's young, too,” said Jeremy Ferkin, general manager of Montana and Idaho for CenturyTel. “The valley as a whole is young. The average age is 37, so we have a very young population but a very affluent population. We have a significant number of senior Microsoft engineers.”

While that's great for chamber of commerce brochures, those high demographics put a big strain on the network. In fact, the carrier's difficulty in providing DSL service drew the attention of the Montana Public Utilities Commission, which was threatening to fine the company for its slow service.

At the same time, the company was becoming a victim of its own success. The Kalispell area has the highest level of penetration in any CenturyTel market (the carrier won't reveal rates on a per-market basis), and existing customers were experiencing service slowdowns.

To remedy the situation, CenturyTel North division manager Marty Snusted called on Calix to deliver 18 of its ODC-40 cabinets, which would boost local network capacity by a little more than 17,000 lines. The kicker: Instead of the normal nine- to 12-month rollout a project like this normally would take, the company needed the cabinets shipped, installed and in service in 11 months.

“They were at capacity exhaust and had all kinds of Band-Aids that were stuck on,” said Tony Roach, Calix' account manager for CenturyTel.

However, CenturyTel was able to clear right-of-way and site engineering issues while installing 18 cabinets each housing two C7 broadband loop carriers, five days ahead of the 11-week schedule.

“We took fiber to all but one of them,” Roach said. “At that point, they can run 8 Mb/s to every customer within 9000 feet.”

Initially, however, CenturyTel offered only 1.5 Mb/s, though it recently boosted that to 3 Mb/s for residential users. The addition of the cabinets also gave the carrier greater overall capacity to offer high-bandwidth services between a local hospital and several doctors' homes.

“We're selling them a pipe from our office back to the hospital and an aggregation from the doctors' homes,” Ferkin said. “It's a private line pipe out to the home. It gives them the bandwidth they need.”

Additionally, the company is providing direct secured links between doctors living in Shelby and Eureka and the hospital, allowing them to consult with others.

“[The hospitals] get the fact that the pipe is dedicated to the doctor, and the doctors can live wherever they want,” Ferkin said.