Leaco Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc. - Hybrid FTTH/ Unlicensed Fixed Wireless - Lovington 01 PAU, Lovington 02 PAU, Tatum 01 PAU - Lea County
Leaco Rural Telephone Cooperative Corporation (“Leaco”) proposes to deploy a combined Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and unlicensed Fixed Wireless project to serve 88 unserved locations/households, including homes, farms, businesses, and community anchor institutions, in the Lovington 01 PAU, Lovington 02 PAU, and Tatum 01 PAU areas of Lea County. Leaco identified these households/locations during its design of the proposed NM BEAD project and the associated PAUs.    The technology Leaco is proposing to deploy is a combination of a fiber-optic network comprised of Optical Line Terminal (OLT) nodes providing Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service for 46 locations within the proposed funded service areas along with an unlicensed fixed wireless for the remaining 42 locations. The FTTH service will utilize XGS Passive Optical Network (XGS-PON) technology. The unlicensed fixed wireless service will utilize Cambium Networks.   XGS-PON [10 Gigabits Symmetrical Passive Optical Network - ITU-T G.9807.1] bandwidth is comprised of 10 Gbps downstream and 10 Gbps upstream, thus symmetrical bandwidths. The bandwidth is shared by all the subscribers connected to the PON via a passive optical splitter. Dynamic bandwidth allocation and statistical multiplexing enable more effective bandwidth usage, allowing users higher effective throughput when needed. Leaco has designed the proposed network with sufficient fiber optic capacity to connect any subscriber via FTTH, without oversubscribing the service areas. The PON architecture is designed for straightforward upgrade to even higher bandwidth PON architectures, using different wavelengths for multiple 10 Gbps signals or even higher bandwidths in the future, without changing out any of the physical infrastructure other than the electronics (laser transmitters and receivers) at the OLT nodes and ONTs (Optical Network Terminals) at the customer premises of those customers who want the especially high bandwidth. The PON architecture will also be lit up by a DWDM backed transport ring, that will allow Leaco to provide light levels necessary for the Calix XGS-PON access equipment to function. Leaco intends to utilize Ubiquiti fixed wireless technology, in compliance with Build America Buy America regulation, to fulfill the unlicensed fixed wireless segment of its BEAD buildout project. This technology is capable of delivering maximum download speeds of up to 900 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 900 Mbps, depending on the specific configuration and bandwidth.   Leaco’s service offerings for residential subscribers within the FTTH network footprint include affordable high speed offerings ensuring potential subscribers of all income levels have options available. Leaco’s residential service offerings range from 100Mbps at $50 to 8Gbps at $100, even the lowest service offering is sufficient for a family to simultaneously work remotely, attend school remotely, and have access to telemedicine and entertainment.   The need for grant funding to construct FTTH to the unserved BEAD locations is driven by financial feasibility insomuch as the cost of serving the 88 locations does not return a positive NPV during the life of fiber assets. These locations currently lack access to broadband service at sufficient speeds and the remote nature of these locations exponentially increases the cost to deploy FTTH service. Without support from the BEAD grant program, it will not be financially feasible to deploy a high-speed broadband network to these locations.   Leaco matching funds for the proposed BEAD project consist of contributing 25% of the cost of the project through a $360,205 in-kind support in the form of IRU fiber and $3 in cash match.    Leaco’s deployment timeline for the project is crafted in a manner to include contingency timing for any unforeseen delays and will be completed and active within four years after the grant award has been made. The timeline elements consist of but are not limited to, permitting, detailed engineering, procurement, staking, mainline and drop construction, and testing and turnup.    The strategies associated with the proposed BEAD project consist of constructing the network and as quicky and efficiently as possible, pre-marketing and marketing activities and outreach to locations in the BEAD project area, and providing customer support and ongoing system monitoring. Leaco’s experienced and well-qualified staff continuously monitors the network to ensure it is operating at peak efficiency, all traffic is moving smoothly and reduce bottlenecks through diverse and redundant routing. Any disruption to the network is quickly identified and teams dispatched to isolate the problem and effect any repairs. Leaco performs routine maintenance and upgrades of the network to ensure long-term viability of the network.