Although large financial resources have been allocated over the past few years in the USA to bridge the rural digital divide, the National Rural Electric Coop Association (NRECA) indicates in its last report from Sep. 2018 that approximately 6.3 million electric co-op households, totaling 13.4 million people, lack access to adequate, high-speed broadband service (25/3 Mbps).

RECs have specific characteristics that make them uniquely qualified to undertake significant and meaningful strides in conquering the digital divide. Among the reasons are their skillset and knowhow from operating electric networks and their well-established customer relations, as explained in the February edition of govtech.com.

Fiber is the preferred access solution, however many RECs face the challenge of serving their highly dispersed community with fiber alone, due to the high costs of fiber roll-out and lengthy implementation times. Looking for an option that is much more cost-effective, yet just as reliable as fiber, has made RECs turn to RADWIN’s Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) as a complementary solution and even a gap-filler before fiber roll-out. 

In addition, check-out how San Luis Valley REC & Ciello deployed RADWIN’s Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) to deliver high capacity fiber-like services to boost business communications and make daily community life that much easier.

 If you have any further questions, contact us.

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