WiMAX is bringing the first broadband connectivity to rural communities in southeastern Oklahoma, Nortel Networks and three service providers announced today. Choctaw Electric Cooperative, Pine Cellular and Pine Telephone will build a broadband infrastructure based on Nortel’s 4G WiMAX technology, the companies said.

Pine and Choctaw Electric Cooperative serve the same territory and will be sharing parts of the WiMAX infrastructure in order to reduce costs, the companies said. The network will be built on Choctaw’s infrastructure by mounting WiMAX antennas on its towers and will provide extensions of Pine Telephone’s DSL service and Pine Cellular’s current coverage area with the addition of mobile broadband. Choctaw’s largely mobile workforce, including pole crews and truck teams, also will use the mobile broadband service to improve internal communications.

The network is funded in part by a Community Connect Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Rural networks, many with government grant funding, represent one of the major opportunities for WiMAX deployment, said Scott Wickware, vice president of Carrier Networks for Nortel.

“WiMAX is a good solution for underserved broadband areas where there is government funding available,” he said in an interview conducted as part of WiMAX World. “We see a lot of ADSL extension-type services from new [companies], ISPs or cable companies. WiMAX is the most cost-effective way to reach some of these rural areas.”

As part of the project, Choctaw and Pine will provide free wireless broadband service to local city police and fire departments and to public schools. In addition, Choctaw is building three community centers, which it will equip with computers to make free Internet access available to the public.