TrueNet Communications was chosen by Cox Communications to design and program manage its network upgrade from 750 MHz to 1.0 GHz in the states of Kansas and Arkansas. Dubbed “Extendable Optical Network” or EON, the massive nationwide multi-billion dollar effort ultimately encompassed over 86,000 miles of Cox’s hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) network and involved over 3,700 node splits.
With 58 cities in Kansas and 17 in Arkansas, Cox’s geographic footprint stretches across thousands of square miles and is served by over 8000 miles of cable plant. As the project’s overall program manager, TrueNet Communications’ responsibilities included network design to boost the overall plant capacity from 750 MHz to 1 GHz and cut node size from an average of 620 to 310 homes, creation of construction RFP packages, construction management and warehousing. After the construction crews finished their work, TrueNet Communications technicians performed the technical QC, plant test and FCC certification and updated the EON GNIS records and operational databases.
One of the project’s biggest challenges was material management and logistics required to support the 12 prime subcontractors and hundreds of field service technicians working on the project. In total, 52 warehouses were established by TrueNet Communications to handle the flow of $100’s of million of dollars of material and equipment to the job sites and the return and recovery of $10’s of millions of dollars of existing equipment.
