Altius Communications Announces Partnership To Connect Rural Kentucky With Broadband Internet Service

ALTIUS recently announced a collaborative project in Kentucky’s Green River Area Development District (GRADD) with Cinergy Communications and Digital Connections Inc. (DCI) of Tennessee to provide rural communities with $2.3 million in technology infrastructure equipment for broadband wireless service.

In early 2006, a team led by nonprofit Connect Kentucky (connectkentucky.com) set about mapping the rural Green River Area Development District to identify the rural communities' infrastructure needs for providing homes and businesses with broadband services. A fixed wireless network will be deployed in seven counties in Northwestern Kentucky, including the approximately 2,700 square miles in Daviess, McLean, Hancock, Henderson, Webster, Ohio and Union counties. The project area includes approximately 60,000 households in the district.

The project includes the delivery and installation of Motorola Canopy equipment that will create a network capable of supporting the rural areas of Kentucky and business development needs of the state. ALTIUS put together the team of DCI for infrastructure build out, Cinergy for customer acquisition and fulfillment, while ALTIUS handled equipment procurement, distribution and logistics management. The three-company team presented a plan to GRADD in October of 2006, and they were awarded the project in April of 2007.

During the initial deployment, all 28 tower sites will be using the Canopy 900MHz radios for distribution to customers. Additionally, Motorola’s Canopy 5.8GHz backhaul technology will be used to link each of the 28 towers in the design.

"The GRADD project is thought to be the largest one-time deployment of fixed wireless in the country," said Jim Connor, president of ALTIUS Communications. "Our partnership with Cinergy and DCI will serve as a model for communities throughout the United States on expanding broadband services in some of the most remote areas to ensure their connectivity."