In the early 1950s, most investor-owned telephone companies in the United States refused to serve rural areas of the country, claiming it was too expensive to do so. Several residents of northeast Alabama, like many of their counterparts around the ., realized that if they and their neighbors were ever going to get reliable communications service, they would have to provide it themselves. Consequently, they set up Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative (FTC) with the idea of making sure that residents and businesses across sparsely-populated DeKalb and Jackson Counties would have access to the same kinds of services that urban Alabamans enjoyed. Throughout the 56 years that have elapsed since then, FTC's. | Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative relies on ADC s Next Generation Frame to Manage its Fiber Infrastructure CASE STUDY BACKGROUND In the early 1950s most investor-owned telephone companies in the United States refused to serve rural areas of the country claiming it was too expensive to do so. Several residents of northeast Alabama like many of their counterparts around the . realized that if they and their neighbors were ever going to get reliable communications service they would have to provide it themselves. Consequently they set up Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative FTC with the idea of making sure that residents and businesses across sparsely-populated DeKalb and Jackson Counties would have access to the same kinds of services that urban Alabamans enjoyed. Throughout the 56 years that have elapsed since then FTC s mission has not changed but the organization itself clearly has along with its underlying technologies and the services it offers. Now the largest member-owned operating telephone cooperative in the state Rainsville-based FTC serves nearly 20 000 subscribers in seven exchanges. It recently began a multi-year project to modernize its network by deploying a fiber-to-the-Premise FTTP infrastructure. As that overbuild progresses FTC gradually is adding advanced offerings including IPTV to its service portfolio which currently includes local and long-distance telephone voice high-speed Internet access and wireless communications. CASE STUDY Customers in northeast Alabama are no different from subscribers in other parts of the nation or for that matter the world they want more bandwidth and more bandwidth-intensive services. Satisfying customer demands and improving the quality of life here in northeast Alabama are part of FTC s mission says Central Office Manager David Garrett and we do that by becoming a world-class broadband provider. Having deployed fiber in strategic sections of its network since 1990 FTC decided a few years ago to pull it
