Indiana and Pennsylvania service providers expand fiber footprints further with Adtran

Adtran®, Inc., (NASDAQ: ADTN), the leading provider of next-generation multigigabit fiber and fiber extension broadband access solutions, today announced New Lisbon Broadband and Communications (NLBC), a subsidiary of New Lisbon Telephone Company, Inc. (NLTC), and Pennsylvania Telephone Company (PTC) are leveraging Adtran’s portfolio of fiber access solutions to bring high-quality broadband services to subscribers. NLBC and PTC are leveraging the Adtran Total Access 5000 (TA5000) 10Gbit/s fiber access platform and Adtran’s Combo PON technology to modernize existing brownfield fiber networks to empower residential and business subscribers to fully participate in today’s digital economy.

NLBC is a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winner situated in East Central Indiana. NLTC recently acquired PTC, which provides service in central Pennsylvania and still operates under the PTC name. In both Indiana and Pennsylvania, subscribers are located in rural areas and small towns. In Pennsylvania, the network serves Amish communities, farms, orchards and residents along the Nipponese Valley. With gorgeous mountain views and the shift to work-from-anywhere, the region is attracting new residents looking to escape nearby urban environments. In Indiana, the rural growth is fueled predominately by expansion along the I-70 corridor and outflow of residents from nearby cities. This growth is in addition to the increase in smart agriculture equipment to boost productivity on farmland. To expand their network service area and address remote learning, remote work and other bandwidth-hungry services like streaming entertainment, NLBC and PTC needed a cost-friendly option to upgrade network capacity and expand service reach to provide future-proof, reliable broadband services – similar to those available in urban environments.

“Competing against large service providers in both Indiana and Pennsylvania, it is vital that NLBC and PTC are capable of providing best-in-class services to our customer base,” said John Greene, CEO of NLTC. “We’ve been able to stay competitive in our market thus far, and we are confident that as bandwidth demands rise, we will still hold a strong position because of our new Combo PON strategy. The flexibility of Adtran’s TA5000 enables us to seamlessly evolve from Point-to-Point Active Ethernet to gigabit-capable PON and beyond with XGS-PON as bandwidth demand increases. I can replace anything at any time and it will work – that is as close to future proof as you can get.”

To upgrade their current networks and expand reach into new regions, both NLBC and PTC will use Adtran’s Combo PON technology to deliver both gigabit-capable PON and multigigabit XGS-PON FTTH technologies over a single common optical distribution network. This allows for an elegant transition to next-generation XGS-PON speeds of up to 10Gbit/s. With Combo PON, PTC will utilize its existing fiber backbone and immediately launch gigabit-capable services to reach 70% of all customers without laying any additional fiber. The service provider plans to run new fiber cable to the remaining 30% of customers over the next five years. NLBC will utilize the Combo PON technology in their RDOF area with gig-capable service initially and upgrade to XGS-PON when the need arises. The compact yet flexible design of Adtran’s 10Gbit/s fiber access platform enables both NLBC and PTC to utilize the TA5000 platform in both new and existing cabinets, providing a seamless transition to fiber services to support next-generation technologies.

“Adtran takes pride in helping service providers build their best networks that are flexible and deliver competitive services, regardless of network size or location,” said Craig Stein, VP of sales at Adtran. “We make it easy for service providers, like NLBC and PTC, to easily integrate advanced solutions into existing networks, require fewer tech resources, limit network modification and accelerate service velocity. As a result, our customers are able to provide better broadband connectivity options that will fuel local economies and provide a better standard of living for those in the communities they serve.”

The Adtran TA5000 platform is the highest density 10Gbit/s PON solution in the US market and serves as the foundation for the industry’s most comprehensive RDOF portfolio.