Broadband Stimulus Winner North Alabama Electric Cooperative Selects ADTRAN Solutions for Fiber-to-the-Home Deployment

ADTRAN^®, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions, today announced that Broadband Stimulus winner North Alabama Electric Cooperative has selected ADTRAN’s flagship product, the Total Access^® 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform (MSAP), Total Access 300 Series ONTs and a full suite of NetVanta^® routers and switches. These solutions combine broadband and smart grid architectures to deliver business and residential services for unserved and underserved areas in Northern Alabama. Given the diverse topology of towns and rural communities, the cooperative will take advantage of the combination of GPON and Active Ethernet Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) capabilities of the Total Access 5000 platform. This deployment will enable the electric utility subscribers to move from time-of-day rate models to demand response rate models and energy consumption can be monitored and adjusted in real time. The efficiencies gained in demand response power generation along with enriching these communities with triple-play broadband services have made North Alabama Electric Cooperative a model in the industry.

ADTRAN's Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform (Photo: Business Wire)

North Alabama Electric Cooperative serves rural Northeast Alabama. Combining its smart grid initiatives with the lack of broadband connectivity to its serving communities, North Alabama Electric Cooperative is investing in state-of-the-art fiber and broadband architectures. This will allow North Alabama to reach thousands of residents in underserved areas within the region as well as businesses, schools, libraries and even the Bellefonte Nuclear facility. The fiber infrastructure will also allow North Alabama to better communicate with the Tennessee Valley Authority, providing near real-time meter readings that will enable demand response for power generation. This project has also served as an engine for economic development, allowing new businesses to develop and grow in the area.

North Alabama selected the Total Access 5000 because it provides the flexibility and scalability to configure and provision advanced triple-play services from a single platform. The cooperative also chose ADTRAN for its outstanding customer service and ability to provide unmatched support throughout the process of launching a new line of business.

“When looking for a solution to enable smart grid telemetry and to roll out triple-play services, we thoroughly researched companies and found ADTRAN’s widely adopted broadband portfolio to be the perfect selection. ADTRAN’s warranty, maintenance and customer service stood out as the best in the industry,” said Bruce Purdy, general manager, North Alabama Electric Cooperative. “The Total Access 5000 combined with ADTRAN’s broadband portfolio has allowed us to become a model in the industry. Cooperatives from throughout the country are calling us for details of our deployments and asking to tour our facilities. They want to replicate the success we have experienced by offering entirely new, cutting-edge, revenue-generating services to existing electric customers.”

“We are excited that North Alabama Electric Cooperative has selected ADTRAN’s broadband portfolio as the backbone of its new GPON and Active Ethernet triple-play deployment,” said P. Steven Locke, vice president of sales, service providers, ADTRAN Carrier Networks Division. “With ADTRAN’s broadband portfolio, cooperatives like North Alabama now have a clear course to quickly and easily address smart grid deployments along with the voice, data and video needs of their customer base.”

About North Alabama Electric Cooperative

North Alabama Electric Cooperative serves 18,200 subscribers throughout Jackson and Marshall Counties in Northeast Alabama. It is one of Alabama's 23 rural electric cooperatives that deliver power to more than 1 million people, or one-fourth of the state's population. Rural electric cooperative power lines cover more than 70 percent of the state's land mass and serve consumers who live in the most sparsely populated regions of the state. North Alabama Electric Cooperative seeks to provide high-speed broadband service to a remote rural unserved and underserved area of Northern Alabama.

About ADTRAN

ADTRAN, Inc. is a leading global provider of networking and communications equipment, with a portfolio of more than 1,700 solutions. ADTRAN's products enable voice, data, video, and Internet communications across a variety of network infrastructures. ADTRAN solutions are currently in use by service providers, private enterprises, government organizations, and millions of individual users worldwide.

For more information, contact the company at 800 9ADTRAN (800 923-8726) or via email at info@adtran.com. On the Web, visit www.adtran.com.

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