Range Telephone Cooperative Delivers DS3 Over Copper Cable With Pulsecom DSE Express

FORSYTH, MT - January 24, 2005 -- Range Telephone Cooperative became one of the first carriers to deliver DS3 service over four standard outside plant copper pairs. Facing the costs and delays associated with installing fiber optic cable to extend a Qwest DS3 hand-off to a local casino, Range Telephone Cooperative — established in 1953 and serving 11 counties in Montana and Wyoming — decided to try a new approach. The casino, located over half a mile from a Range CO but not served by fiber, needed a DS3. New fiber would have been expensive and therefore tied to a significant up-front customer commitment — which could have soured a deal. If Range shouldered the investment themselves, they'd run the risk that the service could be canceled after just a few months. Allen Wetherelt at Range learned of Pulsecom's new DS3 Express and its ability to provide DS3 service over 4 outside plant copper pairs from his local Graybar contact. “We had copper available,” Allen noted, “so the DS3 Express appeared to offer a win-win solution.”

After an installation that was remarkably simple and certainly much faster and less expensive than placing new fiber, service has been trouble free. “By eliminating carrier and customer financial risk, enabling immediate turn up, avoiding often pricey SONET multiplexers and by squeezing even more productivity out of existing copper facilities, the DS3 Express is poised to re-write the economics of DS3 service,” according to Mike Hall, Pulsecom's Senior Financial Manager.