TelAlaska began using equipment from Aktino a year ago, primarily for backhauling traffic from IP DSLAMs. Aktino, the industry leader in delivery of business-class broadband over existing copper wiring infrastructure, is supplying TelAlaska with its AK4000 solution, designed to deliver 10 to 50 Mbps business-class Ethernet services.

“Two benefits of the AK4000 that we have come to appreciate are its remote line powering, and the fact that if you lose operation of a copper pair, it still continues to function,” said Jim Mathe, Telecom Network Director for TelAlaska. Mathe explained that electrical power outages are a fact of life in rural Alaska, which means that the remote cabinets are frequently operating on backup battery power.

“Because the Aktino equipment is line powered, it helps preserve battery life, and that is a real important factor for us. We want to do everything we can do to keep those batteries operating as long as possible when we’re faced with a power outage.”

The TelAlaska technical crew, consisting of Bob Barrett and Steve Shelton, in addition to Mathe, noted that Aktino’s equipment is also performing well even in extremely long loop lengths. In one instance, in Iliamna, Alaska, there is an impressive 20,900-foot run that uses 10 bonded copper pairs, without repeaters, and it is delivering 14 Mbps of bandwidth. Generally, on such long loops, TelAlaska uses 10 or 14 bonded pairs over 22 gauge copper wire.

“We’re essentially overprovisioning, which allows us to lose a couple of pairs and still maintain the bandwidth we want,” Mathe explained. “The Aktino equipment does a great job of proactively distributing the signals across the remaining pairs if we lose any.”

While TelAlaska is installing fiber in some new deployments, in most others it is able to use existing copper. Mathe explained that the only real driver for fiber deep in the network is video, and in certain markets that isn’t something TelAlaska can economically provide at this time. As a result, it opts for re-using existing copper and the Aktino equipment.

“The bandwidth we can get over copper is probably all we’re going to need for the foreseeable future in some of these areas,” Mathe said.

TelAlaska and its family of companies provide telecom services throughout the state, from the Aleutian Islands to central Alaska.

“TelAlaska’s experience demonstrates just how effective the Aktino solution can be in areas where the combination of rate, reach, and reliability really matter,” said Bruce Kimble, president and CEO of Aktino. “Our technology, with its ability to minimize crosstalk and to dynamically reallocate signals around failed pairs, lets carriers deliver the kind of capacity and service levels that are ideally suited to business Ethernet services.”

Aktino, with its MIMO on DMTTM technology, was the first company to deliver products for the business Ethernet market based on DMT (discrete multi-tone) technology and the first to enhance performance through MIMO (multiple in, multiple out). This enables Aktino’s products to reduce or eliminate crosstalk among copper pairs and assure a longer reach, greater bandwidth, and a far larger service footprint, throughout the entire Carrier Serving Area.

Aktino’s product family consists of the AK3000 for long-reach DS3 (45 Mbps) services (the only viable DS3 over copper solution on the market), the AK4000 for delivering 10 to 50 Mbps business-class Ethernet services, and the AK5000, a scalable, shelf-based platform for larger installations.

About TelAlaska TelAlaska is a statewide, full-service telecommunications provider whose roots were established in rural Alaska nearly 40 years ago. The company provides local telephone service; advanced data services; dial-up, DSL, and cable modem Internet service; cable television; and wireless Internet services. Headquartered in Anchorage, TelAlaska companies also have customer service and operations sites in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, Seward, and Nome and agents in more than a dozen other rural communities. For more information, visit www. telalaska.com

About Aktino Aktino designs and delivers innovative carrier-class long reach broadband over copper solutions that enable service providers to offer a broad footprint of revenue-generating business-class broadband services over existing copper loops. Aktino is a pioneer in the use of industry standard DMT (Discrete Multi Tone) with MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) in the wireline domain. Aktino’s products, including its MEF 9- and MEF 14-certified AK4000 family, and the ATM/TDM-based AK3000 family (the only DS3 over copper solution on the market) enable service providers to deliver more services to a larger footprint than any other copper-based broadband solution. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Irvine, California, Aktino is shipping products to service providers throughout the world. For more information, please visit www. aktino.com.