Huawei/ Far Lane Deal Targets Rural Broadband

A telecommunications veteran who has considerable experience in rural deployments has started a company to pursue opportunities to serve smaller operators deploying broadband.

The company, known as Far Lane, is headed up by Bill Macfarlane, whose experience includes operating the Western Independent Networks fiber network in the Northwest US. Far Lane, announced that it will offer Huawei’s GPON equipment, multi-gigabit routers and other IP equipment and solutions throughout the US to incumbent local exchange carriers, rural electric cooperatives and other broadband service providers. The Huawei/ Far Lane deal calls for Far Lane to sell Huawei equipment nationwide but is not exclusive. Huawei Director of Corporate Communications Francis Hopkins said the relationship with Far Lane is the first of several that the company expects to establish to target smaller network operators.