Jackson Energy Authority

"Jackson Energy Authority selected Wave7 Optics' Last Mile Link because we believe that it is the best solution in the fiber-to-the-user industry, and it has clearly proven its mettle. But the support that goes with their product has been above all expectations. The Wave7 Optics team has been a particularly effective partner in our project."

Kim Kersey
Vice-President
Jackson Energy Authority, TN

Situation - The Jackson Energy Authority of Jackson, Tennessee has a long history of providing electricity, natural gas, propane gas, water, and wastewater services – currently to more than 38,000 businesses and industry in Jackson and Madison County. Over the years many of their customers had asked them to explore the possibility of adding telecommunications services to the mix, in particular broadband services, as existing broadband service providers had been slow to provide community-wide access.

Furthermore, JEA is among a growing number of progressive utility companies that recognize broadband development is critical to enhancing economic growth. JEA sought to create a broadband network that would offer very robust bandwidth technology for all sectors of the economy -- for small and large business, prospective and existing industry, healthcare, education and others -- as part of the strategy to position the community for success in the "new information economy."

Prospects - JEA conducted feasibility studies analyzing the deployment costs of a new FTTP network and its expected "rate of return," based on community interest as determined by a survey of JEA customers. This survey revealed a significant unmet demand for broadband service. Further analysis revealed that FTTP compared favorably in terms of both economics and services to DSL and HFC options. For instance, FTTP has much more "future proofing" capability than the other two options, with regards to HDTV, IP video and other services, and FTTP has a much longer amortization and depreciation schedule as well as lower operating costs.

Solution - Having received support from the local government councils and funding from bond issues, to be repaid only via telecommunications revenues, JEA launched one of the largest public FTTH deployments in the nation. JEA entertained proposals from leading FTTP vendors and determined that the Last Mile Link from Wave7 Optics provided the most economical and feature-rich solution. The project, which encompasses 650 miles of plant – 550 aerial and 100 underground, commenced in 1Q 2004 and will conclude in 3Q 2005. At that time, the network will have passed more than 26,000 residential and 5,000 commercial, educational and other non-residential sites. JEA built the network using a business model projecting residential "penetration" rates of 40% for television and approximately 25% each for high-speed data and telephone services after three years from start of the project.

Current Situation - After just the first year of operation, nearly 8,362 homes and businesses were using "Eplus Broadband" services, provided through JEA’s FTTP network. These services include 270 channels of analog and digital cable television, that include 12 channels of HDTV, up to four "VoIP" telephone lines, and symmetrical high-speed data bandwidth rates ranging from 512 kbps to 100 Mbps per customer. Presently, JEA has more than 12,000 subscribers connected; of these, 100% use video services, 50% use voice services, and 40% use Internet services.

The extreme bandwidth capacity afforded by Wave7 Optics’ Last Mile Link equipment has enabled JEA to compete successfully with incumbent operators by offering more robust service offerings. The flexibility of the network also enables JEA to accommodate multiple third-party Internet and telephone providers in an open network environment. By integrating the Wave7 Optics provisioning system with compatible middleware solutions that are available on the market, JEA has created an automated flow through of order entry to provisioning that has enabled JEA to scale to high levels of daily installation activity.

According to Kim Kersey, JEA’s senior vice president of telecommunications, "We are very pleased with the hands-on support from Wave7 Optics personnel to assist us with installing the network equipment and setting up the automated provisioning. They have been with us every step of the way to ensure that our launch was successful. The Last Mile Link network equipment is performing as designed, and Wave7 Optics has been responsive to our questions and suggestions."

Overall, JEA’s early project results are very encouraging. Community response has been very positive, the Wave7 Optics’ Last Mile Link is operating well, and JEA believes that it is on the way to meeting and exceeding its business plan projections.