Alvarion Receives USDA's WiMax Rural Development Acceptance

Alvarion’s 802.16e BreezeMAX 2300 and 2500 base stations have reportedly received USDA Rural Development acceptance and “Buy American” status from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service.

 

The 2300 and 2500 base stations form the radio access network foundation of Alvarion’s 4Motion Mobile WiMax solution. The USDA Rural Development acceptance covers the full RAN solution portfolio to include micro and macro base stations, the variety of CPEs, antennas and mounting systems.

 

Kelley Dunne is the chief executive officer of DigitalBridge Communications, an Alvarion customer using BreezeMAX equipment in fourteen U.S. markets serving thousands of customers.

 

Dunne said that Rural Development acceptance of a licensed WiMax system is something the USDA has never done before. He said that the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz operators across the United States can now leverage the hundreds of millions of federal dollars available each year for rural broadband access, and they get to do it with the market’s benchmark WiMax solution for these bands.

 

“We are proud to be the first to receive the RUS licensed WiMax acceptance for our BreezeMAX solution,” said Greg Daily, president of Alvarion who also believes that timing is perfect with WiMax so much in the news lately and their BreezeMAX 2.5 GHz being one of the first base stations to achieve the WiMax Forum Certified seal.

 

Daily said that now license holders of WCS and BRS/EBS frequencies can access federal funds to deploy WiMax for the first time.

 

This announcement has come following months of evaluation of performance documentation and detailed testimonials from multiple operators with commercial BreezeMAX networks.

 

According to Alvarion, Rural Utilities Service acceptance and “Buy American” status are required for operators who request federal funds from the Rural Broadband Access Loan program for the purpose of purchasing and deploying broadband systems. RUS has provided around $6.5 billion in telecom grants, loans and loan guarantees for rural development from 2001 through 2007.