BOISE (WiMAX Day). DigitalBridge Communications (DBC) will launch a commercial WiMAX service this week in the state of Idaho, in America’s Pacific Northwest region. The service will be launched in the city of Rexburg, reaching more than 7,000 households and business, and soon will expand to Southern Idaho and the neighbouring state of Montana.

The service will be offered under the brand name BridgeMaxx, and according to a company press release, will offer download speeds of up to 3 Mbps. DBC is using the BreezeMAX platform from WiMAX equipment manufacturer Alvarion, as well as its self-install customer premises equipment.

The launch of WiMAX services in Rexburg is significant. Shawn Larsen, the Mayor of Rexburg, said that WiMAX “will allow Rexburg to grow, and provide more educational and economic opportunities to our citizens.” As a part of its agreement with the city of Rexburg, DBC will provide services to various municipal facilities across the city, the company press release reported.

Idaho is known for its bountiful crops of potatoes – nearly one-third of all potatoes grown in America are from Idaho – and its snow-covered mountains attract extreme skiers and have given refuge to many Hollywood hideaways. But more recently, Idaho has become a big exporter of technology. It is one of the leading centres of semiconductor manufacturing, and is also home to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a government lab for nuclear energy research.

Serving underserved populations
DBC is based in Ashburn, Virginia and the strategy of the company is to provide WiMAX services to underserved rural, suburban, military, and university communities in America, particularly from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest and Southeast. The company was founded in 2005, and in December last year it raised US$11 million in a Series A venture financing, and US$6.25 million in debt from Comerica Bank. The Series A was co-led by RedShift Ventures, CNF Investments, and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

Following its venture funding, DBC completed acquisitions of Teton Wireless and Montana Wireless,  operators of wireless, cable and Internet services in Idaho and Montana, which provided the company with 2.5 GHz spectrum and a base to build its network. The acquisitions also gave DBC some 20,000 video and data subscribers. DBC owns and leases radio spectrum in these regions, and according to Joe Kochan, Vice President of Operations at DBC, the company is mainly deploying its network using 2.5 GHz spectrum.

As DBC expands its network into other states, it will prove to be an interesting local complement to national companies such as Sprint and Clearwire, which are focussed on much larger markets.