Add another one to the companies hoping to get a piece of the broadband stimulus package: ERF Wireless, which has been quietly building out fixed WiMAX in rural areas.
The company believes it is eligible for stimulus funding for rural and underserved areas of the country, says CEO Dean Cubley. It’s taking a two-pronged approach: pursuing a multi-state application process and partnering with companies that don’t have existing operations.
“We’re making an active effort to go out and find companies that would like to partner with us,” he says. “We have extensive operational experience.”
ERF has more than 160,000 square miles of wireless broadband coverage in three states, mostly in New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. It’s under contract with oil and gas giant Schlumberger to provide wireless broadband and just finished its 15th acquisition about a month ago, picking up Frontier Internet and iTexas.net, both in Granbury, Texas.
The company is building out a wireless broadband network using a combination of acquisitions, partnerships and new construction, but ERF is deploying WiMAX almost exclusively in its newer networks, Cubley says.
ERF went public in 2004 and has about 88 employees. It also provides a proprietary technology to the banking industry.