DZS Inc. announced the initial success of one of the largest rural broadband transformation projects currently underway in the U.S., now being deployed by First Electric Cooperativealong with DZS strategic partner Irby Utilities (Irby), a Sonepar Company, in central and southeastern Arkansas. In just nine months, First Electric's Connect2First subsidiary has leveraged Irby's broadband network planning and deployment experience along with DZS technology solutions to roll out over 2,500 miles of fiber—more than 35% of the total planned 7,000+ mile buildout—enabling the delivery of world-class gigabit+ services to thousands of subscribers with the goal of ultimately reaching its entire membership of over 99,000 member accounts in 18 counties in central and southeastern Arkansas over the next four to six years. This ambitious program, which leverages Rural Digital Opportunity Funds (RDOF) and potentially other government funding resources, will dramatically improve the quality of life and bring new economic opportunities to these underserved and in some parts unserved regions of the state.
Besides delivering fiber to an area that has little to no broadband access, the $240 million Connect2First program will enable First Electric to connect all its substations to a fiber backbone, thus extending its operational network for SCADA. This large-scale effort is one of nine projects at different levels of completion in which DZS and Irby are presently partnering, which will collectively bring hyper-speed connectivity to approximately 300,000 subscribers, and which are approved to utilize over $100 million in RDOF funds and other federal, state, and local funding programs. First Electric's service area spans over 3,600 square miles across central and southeast Arkansas, from the Ozark Mountains to the Mississippi River, and from metropolitan areas like the outskirts of Little Rock to rural and farming communities with just one or two meters per mile of line. Yet all of First Electric's diverse 99,000-plus member accounts will ultimately be able to take advantage of the new Connect2First broadband network, which currently offers symmetrical speed residential service tiers of 200/500/1000 Mbps with the potential to deliver 10 Gbps services on demand in the future — all over the same fiber infrastructure and DZS Velocity and Helix systems now being rolled out. Irby is helping First Electric with planning and rapid deployment of multiple DZS technologies, including: DZS Velocity Broadband Access solutions: The DZS Velocity V14 multi-terabit FTTx OLTs with GPON, XGS-PON, and Combo line cards form the backbone of First Electric's multi-gigabit capable services deployment. DZS V14 OLTs offer an ultra-high capacity, standards-based, fiber-optimized aggregation platform suitable for deployment in even the most demanding physical environments; and DZS Helix Edge Access solutions: DZS ONTs and home gateways provide wired connectivity in the home. The partnership between DZS, Irby and First Electric is one of many such deployments underway with rural electric co-operatives across the U.S. The RDOF program has thus far distributed over $1 billion to electric co-operative projects, with DZS and Irby involved with more than $100 million in awarded and approved funding. Billions more are still available for rural broadband projects from multiple sources. The availability of diverse funding testifies to the ability of DZS and Irby, along with First Electric and other electric co-op partners, to collectively deliver broadband services, on time and on budget, that transform quality of life and economic prospects in some of America's most underserved communities.