As you know, we have been tracking the progress of Denver-based rural WiMAX operator Open Range Communications for quite some time now. The company has secured $100 million in funding from One Equity Partners, though it had lined up this financing as far back as March 2008. The company had previously secured $267 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Utilities Program. With this new financing, Open Range meets the conditions set by FCC, and the company can now start deploying its rural wireless broadband service under a spectrum lease agreement with GlobalStar, a satellite-based Internet service provider.
Bill Beans Jr., a veteran of the CLEC business, is the CEO of this company, while Gregory Slemons, formerly chief network officer at AT&T Wireless, is the chief operating officer. The company plans to sell 1.5 Mbps connection for $40 a month and unlimited voice for about $30 a month in regions of rural America where broadband availablity is woefully lagging
Photo courtesy of Gino via Flickr.
