Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative purchased Airspan Network’s advanced WiMAX equipment. ASTAC will bring WiMAX to Alaska’s north slope communities and industries.
It’s a challenge to provide high speed broadband to Alaskans because of the terrain and weather, but Airspan equipment is built to handle all kinds of harsh weather. ASTAC owns spectrum space in the 700MHz and using the MicroMAX WiMAX base station, can use the space to deploy WiMAX. The company services all kinds of consumers, from businesses and homes, to the oil industry and research centers.
“ASTAC has been serving the Prudhoe Bay oil field area with Airspan equipment for over 4 years. With harsh weather conditions, limited wired infrastructure and often only seasonal ice road access, companies on the slope have limited broadband access options,” Charlie Carpenter, Chief Network Officer of ASTAC said. “Working with Stutler Technologies to deploy Airspan equipment, ASTAC is able to continuously provide faster, more reliable broadband wireless services to these companies.”
This is another example of smaller telecom companies fielding WiMAX. It’s uncommon in the U.S., but in some countries smaller telecoms are succeeding in deploying WiMAX. Clearwire, heavily backed by Sprint, is the primary player in WiMAX rollout within the U.S, launching services in 27 markets.
Photo Courtesy of jackfrench via Flickr
