Anza Electric Cooperative Joins Gigabit Network

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Anza Electric Cooperative has joined ADTRAN’s gigabit network. Anza will join 300 communities that are part of the network. Their decision to leverage ADTRAN’s Gigabit service architecture was met with resounding community support as 93% of the co-op members approved the proposal – the highest voter turnout ever achieved.

For the communities in the nearly 700 square miles of high desert between San Diego and Palm Springs, career and higher education opportunities have been somewhat limited. Anza Electric’s Gigabit ConnectAnza service launch will support the creation of job training and virtual education programs. Demand for free computer training classes has significantly increased as residents realize the potential remote job benefits with this skill set. The utility is also spearheading a professional telecom training program at a satellite campus with one of the regional community colleges.

“The response by both residential and business customers has been amazing. It’s not at all unusual for our service van drivers to get stopped in the street by people asking when they can be signed up for Gigabit broadband. We really see this technology having a transformational effect on our community,” Kevin Short, general manager, Anza Electric Cooperative, Inc.

ADTRAN recently launched 10-gigabit trials which will be the next phase of ultra-high speed broadband services for consumers. That testbed of customers includes new market entrants to municipal/utility providers to international Tier 1 carriers. In an interview with CivSource, the company would only name one – the Jackson Energy Authority.

The 10-gigabit service is a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) offering based on XGS-PON architecture. XGS-PON has emerged as a faster way of getting next generation broadband technology to market while standards boards finish work on NG-PON2. Led by ADTRAN, XGS-PON is an emerging ITU 10G PON standard that bridges the gap between today’s FTTH technologies and NG-PON2. The technology uses existing fiber infrastructure which can make it more cost effective for providers.