Pioneer Telephone Picks Mimosa Fixed Wireless Solutions for Ultra Broadband Services

Mimosa Networks has announced that Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, Inc., the third largest cooperative in the United States, and its affiliates, have selected the company’s fiber-fast wireless solutions to complement its extensive LTE-based tower network.

With over 150,000 subscribers, the Midwestern cooperative is adding Mimosa fixed wireless devices to boost speeds, rapidly turn-up subscriber services, and address demand for ultra-broadband speeds in areas where fiber-to-the-home is not viable.

Pioneer offers subscribers a wide array of services including voice, internet, video, wireless, security and business services. With strong expertise in fixed wireless deployments, Pioneer has historically offered fixed wireless broadband services on an LTE network with packages of up to 4 Mbps. To meet the growing demand for higher speeds, Pioneer needed an alternative fixed wireless solution.

“We trialed a number of fixed wireless solutions and were most impressed with the performance, spectral efficiency, ease-of-use, and economics of Mimosa,” said Richard Ruhl, General Manager of Pioneer. “We made the decision to deploy Mimosa side-by-side with our existing LTE equipment, enabling us to start offloading traffic immediately and reduce the capacity limitations presented by our LTE network. We were ultimately won over by the performance and quick deployment time, getting us to a more rapid return on investment.”

Pioneer currently offers coverage in over 60 counties in southern Kansas and southern Oklahoma, and is expanding into rural remote areas in western Oklahoma, recently electing to accept funding under the FCC’s Alternative Connect America Cost Model (A-CAM). The A-CAM funding will be used to invest in Mimosa solutions to expand rural broadband availability for 19,000 unserved and underserved locations in the region.

Pioneer has been successful in offering high capacity broadband services to the majority of its customers leveraging FTTH and DSL solutions. With the introduction of Mimosa’s fixed wireless technology, they will now have the ability to offer those same services to customers that were previously unreachable within its existing wireline footprint. “With Mimosa, we are able to offer our customers speeds of well over 100 Mbps, twenty five times faster than what was previously available with our LTE-only solution. These ultra-broadband speeds are a game changer for our customers and allow us to offer the same quality and consistent broadband experience across our large service area,” continued Ruhl.

Pioneer is deploying Mimosa’s point-to-multipoint solutions using A5c access devices, and C5/C5c client devices in its network and expects to leverage these solutions across most of its 400 towers by year-end. Pioneer uses Mimosa’s cloud-based Network Design Tool and Network Management System to design, monitor, manage and maintain the integrity and performance of their network deployments.

“We are honored to partner with Pioneer on its large-scale broadband expansion initiatives,” said John Colvin, SVP of Global Field Operations at Mimosa. “This is another stellar example of a traditional telephone cooperative selecting fixed wireless as the solution of choice for delivering ultra-broadband services to its communities and rural areas. Mimosa understands the need to connect everyone with the ultimate broadband experience. By working together, we can help Pioneer accelerate its broadband deployment initiatives, enabling it to reach customers as quickly and affordably as possible - something both companies take very seriously and have great pride in.”

Mimosa executives will be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, NTCA RTIME in Austin, Texas and the NRECA Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the week of February 25, 2018.  Stop by the Mimosa booths to discover how Mimosa fiber-fast wireless solutions can accelerate your broadband initiatives.