Companies Develop Integrated Tools to Aid Development of Wireless Networks in Rural Areas

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed by Congress on
February 17, 2009, set aside $7.2 billion in funds for broadband build-outs. 
Of that, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) will administer $4.7B, while the Department of
Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) will control $2.5B, offering grants,
loans and loan guarantees that will fund the build out of rural broadband for
municipalities and state governments, utility companies, and the rural telecom
providers.

The funds must be dispersed before September 30, 2010, to projects that can be
completed within two years.  The RUS funds, to be awarded by Sept.  30
of this year, focus more on rural broadband access, requiring that at least 75
percent of an area receiving funds be in a rural area without sufficient
high-speed broadband access. 

In response, four American companies including Berkeley Varitronics Systems,
Inc., EDX Wireless, DoceoTech, and EGS Technologies have developed an integrated
set of tools to help operators navigate this process.  The bundled package
includes RF planning software, geodata tools, propagation test equipment and
tailored technical training for several broadband technologies including WiFi,
WiMAX and LTE.

"By having this basic integrated wireless engineering tool set, grant applicants
can provide more definitive data on the underserved areas they are proposing to
cover as well as the coverage available after deployment," says Jennifer Duncan,
executive director of business development for EDX.  "Further, this package
provides applicants with a valuable return on investment because it will provide
a way to consistently plan for both the initial deployments as well as the next
phase of network build outs, and it provides industry standard tools to
effectively communicate with federal and state agencies as well as other ARRA
initiatives."

The package is expected to be available in April, 2009 and will be available
from each of the participating companies.  More info can be found

here.