Valley Telecom Group has chosen Wave7 Optics to supply fiber-to-the-premises gear for its deployment in Willcox and Safford, Ariz., where the independent telco plans to compete with Qwest Communications.

Valley will begin construction this summer of a network that will pass 7000 homes, offering voice, high-speed data and more than 100 channels of digital video. Valley Telecom is already building an FTTP network in Playas, N.M., where New Mexico Tech University is building a site on which to stage mock disasters under a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Joe Webb, chief operations officer of Valley Telecom, said the company chose Wave7 for its economic value and the rugged nature of its optical network terminals.

Wave7 now has more than 33 customers domestically, said Emmanuel Vella, chief marketing officer, and about 40% of those are independent telcos.

Landing Valley is significant because it gives the equipment vendor a foothold in the Southwestern U.S., he said.

"We have a lot of customers in the Southeast and Midwest, so it's nice to get customer in the Southwest," he said. "Independents do look at what their contemporaries are doing and they do have regional organizations." Valley's aggressive push into Qwest territory is in keeping with what many independents are doing, Vella said.

"They are being aggressive," he said. "This is not a defensive play."