Dakota Central Deploys Ribbon to Enable Increased Network Reliability

Dakota Central, an Independent Operating Company (IOC) based in North Dakota, has deployed Ribbon’s IP Optical portfolio for increased network capacity, improved broadband speeds and enhanced network reliability.

The Apollo (Optical Networking) and Neptune (IP Routing) solutions enable Dakota Central to significantly upgrade its communications network to offer new revenue generating services such as 5G backhaul. In addition, Ribbon’s solutions allow Dakota Central to easily accommodate future network growth.

“We had exhausted the capacity of our old network and were in need of a proven solution that would easily scale and allow us to deliver next generation communications services,” said John Cunningham, Chief Network Officer, Dakota Central. “Ribbon’s IP Optical solutions provided us with the additional bandwidth we needed, and the ability to easily scale up to 200 gigabits (200G), which allows us to deliver our customers faster broadband and gives us the ability to now offer 5G backhaul services.”

“Dakota Central has been a longtime Ribbon customer having deployed our Call Control and Session Border Controller products, so we are delighted that they have entrusted us to upgrade their broadband network with our IP Optical portfolio,” said Elizabeth Page, U.S. Rural Market Director for Ribbon. “After a very competitive process, they saw the numerous benefits Ribbon offered over the competition such as the ability to quickly turn up new services, enhanced traffic management capabilities and improved network monitoring and fault management of the IP transport and optical layers through a single pane of glass.”

Ribbon’s Optical Networking solution, including Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexing (ROADM) capabilities, enables Dakota Central to quickly expand network capacity between any of its sites, helping to future-proof the network. The Ribbon IP Routing solution allows Dakota Central to deliver services, easily set up traffic profiles for service assurance, and offer dynamic reconfiguration in the event of a hardware failure or fiber cut.