Ketchikan Public Utility Telecommunications (KPU) (https://www.kputel.com), located in the City of Ketchikan, Alaska, contracted Televate to explore and develop a business case and technical implementation strategy to deploy 4G, Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless services by utilizing either the lower 700 MHz or AWS radio spectrum that KPU then owned. KPU is a municipal corporation that provides the City of Ketchikan and surrounding communities with Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services.
Project Tasks
Televate provided an analysis of both capital and operational cost for Ketchikan and other population centers in southeast Alaska, assessing the business case viability and investigating various strategies for deploying the 4G LTE wireless system. Televate supported KPU with the physical design of the LTE network, conducted RF coverage and interference analysis, supported site acquisition, and scaled the LTE network to accommodate dense traffic requirements within the cruise ship port and downtown areas of the City. Additional support included vendor negotiations and backhaul network design to best mange cost and quality.
Televate also assisted KPU in identifying and negotiating strategic partnership relationships. Key among these relationships for KPU is their partnership with Verizon Wireless, which serves as a core services provider and inbound roaming partner. The strategic engagements that Televate supported included hosted core network services, roaming agreements, spectrum sharing, peer operator relationships, value added service offerings, and the monetizing of unutilized spectrum. The primary focus of this strategic relationship was to facilitate the goal of achieving the greatest service delivery and economic benefit for the overall KPU LTE business operations, while at the same time managing risk and delivering on critical time-to-market milestones.
Services included:
- Design and develop 4G LTE system for the City to support Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services
- Project Management for the design and buildout of the multi-cell multi-site broadband LTE system
- Site Acquisition for the network
- Capacity Analysis, including traffic requirements within the high-traffic cruise ship port and downtown areas of the City
- Negotiations with Verizon Wireless for a strategic partnership in support of the network and the City’s business case.