TelPlexus LLC - Statistics:

• Provided engineering services for more than a 13 years
• Management averages more than 20 years of telecom experience
• Engineered and managed more than $250M dollars in FTTx projects
• Vendor agnostic - we are loyal to our clients
• Licensed electrical engineers in more than a dozen states
• Have engineered more than 2000 miles of long haul fiber
• Ranked in the top 100 of broadband firms in the country

For rural operating companies, TelPlexus is a respected name with the Rural Utilities Service of the USDA (RUS). For legacy borrowers and stimulus winners alike, we know that the key to successful federal financing is experience with the rules of the agency.

For federal funding, and for all network projects, think of TelPlexus. 

• Do you have a project that has stalled?
• Do you need a project management firm?
• Do you lack confidence in your design?
• Do you lack confidence in your fiber test results? 

Let TelPlexus help you get back on track.

Call 615-225-5252 to set-up a meeting with us at the FTTH Expo.

Visit us at Booth 225 in Orlando at the 2011 FTTH Conference & Expo: September 27-30

The Rural Utilities Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (RUS) continues to issue loans for rural broadband, upgrades to electric cooperative plant, Smart Grid implementations, and telecom projects. A surprise for many watchers of the agency was the recent announcement by RUS of loans for rural public safety communications projects.

Here is our recap of recent communications funding announcement from RUS, and what to watch for:

1.      Broadband Loan Program      

RUS officials have confirmed with us that awards are still pending in the Broadband Loan Program for this year. There remains a total of $320 million in Broadband loan funds for the agency to award in the current round. RUS has not disclosed the number loan applications received to date, nor the total of funds applied for, but staff has told us they are hard at work processing loan applications.

2.       New Public Safety Communications Loans

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on September 9 that new interim regulations will allow the use of Telecom Infrastructure Loan Program funds for rural public safety communications projects. RUS is opening a 60-day comment window on the new interim guidelines. The interim rules authorized the funding of rural 911 emergency communications centers, and the upgrade of rural wireless networks to enable next generation 911 system compatibility. 

Non-public safety loan applications will still be accepted and funded from the Telecom Loan Program.

3.       Electric Coops Receive $1.503 billion for Plant Upgrades & Smart Grid

Within just the last 3 weeks, USDA has announced the award of a full $1.03 billion in loan funding to electric cooperatives. Two announcements together for 43 awards total to the $1.03 billion figure.

Of the $1 billion plus in total loans to electric cooperatives issued recently, the majority is for upgrade and extension of distribution facilities. The USDA Smart Grid investments will allow many cooperatives to jump start their entry into the deployment of greater intelligence in their distribution systems. 

4.       $317 Million Issued in Telecom Program Loans                   

So far this federal fiscal year the USDA has awarded $317 in loans to rural telephone operators from the traditional Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program of RUS. As it was last fiscal year, the Infrastructure Loan tranche is funded at a program level of $690 million.

On August 22 RUS issued the agency's most recent group of telecommunications loan program awards, announcing that five cooperatives and operating companies were receiving $103.7 million in new loans in Illinois, Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Watch your email for follow-on information from TelPlexus about these programs.

Federal funding can be difficult to manage. Please reach us directly if you have any questions about how to apply for a USDA grant of loan, or how to manage project funding.

 

 

While the July acquisition of cloud computing operator Alteva, LLC by independent local exchange carrier Warwick Valley Telephone of Orange County, New York, left many observers "scratching their heads", as Joanie Engbretson of Connected Planet wrote, most industry analysts agree that it makes perfect sense.

Recent purchases and market roll-ups of cloud computing, managed hosting, data center, and hosted VoIP providers by operating telephone companies signal an important trend.  The Alteva acquisition followed CenturyLink's announcement in April of its $2.5 billion purchase of data center leader Savvis, Verizon's acquisition of Terremark, and Time Warner Cable's takeover of NaviSite.

As operators see their traditional wireline voice revenues decline, IP-based services, especially business services sold into enterprise customers, become more critical.  Cloud computing is now in an explosive growth cycle, as the adoption of cloud-supported applications booms.  From Salesforce.com to iTunes and much of the world's retail e-commerce applications, cloud computing defines the IT environment of the current decade.

Estimates of cloud computing growth are nothing but effusive, as investors and market analysts argue not if the surge in cloud usage is continuing, but how geometric it is. Cloud leader and Amazon subsidiary AWS was project to grow at an astonishing 801% per year, according to a UBS research report noted by GigaOm last year.  

The growth of cloud computing is, in turn, a central driver of the data center market, seen as healthy and robust by both IT and real estate analysts today.  The 2011 census by DatacenterDynamics published this month estimates that global power consumption attributed to data center operations is now growing at 19% per year, with a 16% growth rate in present yearly capital investment in the sector.

Rural and ex-urban areas increasingly host data centers in areas where cheap power and multi-carrier routes converge. Where tax incentives are also tossed on the negotiating table by local or state officials, data center developers find the total package irresistible.  Such is the case today in Oregon's Columbia River Valley, with its cheap public power, where local communities have welcomed the infusion of investment represented by data center construction.

Independent providers looking to partner for a data center investment or moving into that market space themselves need local allies.  The best ones to have are utilities selling cheap power, multiple long haul carriers, and public officials willing to negotiate permitting and tax concessions.