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| May 9, 2006 |
| A letter from Senator Norm Coleman. Click
image below for larger version.
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| Press Release: April 21,
2006 |
Jaguar Communications Awarded $4,641,000 USDA
Rural Development Loan
Owatonna-based company to build broadband systems in 8-county
area
OWATONNA, Minn., April 21 – U.S. Congressman Gil Gutknecht
visited Jaguar Communications in Owatonna, Minn. today to
recognize a $4,641,000 USDA Rural Development loan recently
awarded to the company.
The loan will be used to construct broadband systems that will
cover an eight county area in southeastern, Minn., utilizing
wireless, digital subscriber line (DSL), and Fiber to the
Premise (FTTP) technologies. When the system is completed, it
will provide varying degrees of voice, data, and video broadband
service to more than six thousand residential and business
customers.
"High-speed telecommunications services are essential to
economic development," Gutknecht said. "This loan will connect
rural businesses and consumers to a world of new opportunity."
Counties served include: Rice, Goodhue, Waseca, Steele, Dodge,
Olmstead, Freeborn, and Mower.
“Jaguar Communications has always striven to deliver leading
edge telecommunications and broadband services to rural areas of
our state,” said President/CEO Donny Smith. “The new services
facilitated with this loan will advance the development and
enhance the opportunities of our rural communities. Health care,
education, economic development, personal growth, home
entertainment, and satisfaction will all be improved through
these advances. Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated team at
Jaguar, this is the beginning of a journey that will see the
digital divide diminish and finally disappear in our area.”
Jaguar Communications aims to give rural areas the same access
to high-speed communications technology found in most urban
areas. USDA Rural Development began funding similar ventures
after the 2002 Farm Bill.
“President Bush wanted the Farm Bill to contain funding for
rural broadband ventures,” said Steve Wenzel, State Director of
USDA Rural Development in Minnesota. “I commend Jaguar
Communications for taking the initiative to invest in broadband
technology in rural Minnesota. Their efforts will go a long way
toward improving the quality of life and creating economic
opportunity in the area.”
Since 2001, USDA Rural Development has invested about $2.5
billion throughout Minnesota. The agency's mission is to deliver
programs in a way that will support increasing economic
opportunity and improve the quality of life of rural residents.
Rural Development provides investment and technical assistance
to finance and foster growth in homeownership, business
development, and critical community and technology
infrastructure
For more information on USDA Rural Development, visit
www.rurdev.usda.gov/mn, or call the office in Faribault (507)
334-2206 or Austin (507) 437-8247
Originally posted on:
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/mn/News/jag.htm
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| Press Release : April 18,
2006 |
Mark Dayton Announces $4.6
Million Rural Development Loan to Provide Internet Service in
Southeastern Minnesota
USDA grant will improve broadband services in Rice, Goodhue,
Waseca, Steele, Dodge, Olmsted, Freeborn and Mower Counties
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today announced that
Jaguar Communications, Inc., in Owatonna, will receive a
$4,641,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural
Economic Development Loan program. The loan will provide
broadband internet services to more than 6,000 residential and
business customers in Southeast Minnesota. The broadband loan
program was created in the 2002 Farm Bill to specifically target
rural areas and ensure they received affordable and quality
internet access, just like their more urban neighbors.
“I am delighted that Jaguar Communications received this
assistance,” said Dayton. “Having cost-effective, high speed
internet access is vital to small businesses and rural
residents.” Jaguar Communications, Inc. will use the loan
funding to construct an eight county system in southeast
Minnesota utilizing wireless, digital subscriber lines (DSL) and
Fiber to the Home technology. When the system is completed, it
will provide varying degrees of voice, data and video broadband
service to more than six thousand residential and business
customers. Jaguar Communications is a community backed company,
with small business owners, farmers, college professors and
other small investors from the area comprising its stockholders.
Originally posted on:
http://www.senate.gov/~dayton/news/details.cfm?id=253964&&
Contact: Press Office, 202.224.3244
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Press
Release:
Upstart Magazine
2005 (October) |
Though he grew up on a farm, Donny
Smith was fortunate enough to be exposed to leading-edge
technology at a young age.
He got his first teletype terminal, a screenless predecessor to
the personal computer, as a high-schooler in the 1970s. On it,
he accessed the DARPAnet, an early government-created network
from which the Internet evolved.
“As crude as it was, it was state-of-the-art back then,” says
Smith.
Now, as CEO of Owatonna-based Jaguar Communications, he wants to
make sure other rural kids have that same early flirtation with
new technology. But most are merely playing catch-up to their
urban peers, who’ve been surfing the Web and dabbling in digital
for years, he says.
[read
more] |
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April 07,
2004 : Press Release: Metaswitch Hosts First Users Conference |
| The MetaSwitch
Users' Group elected Donny Smith of Owatonna, Minnesota-based
Jaguar Communications as its first chairman. Other board members
include Jawaid Bazyar of foreThought.net (Colorado), Don Eller
of Yukon Telephone (Alaska), Kidd Filby of Arrival
Communications (California) and Steve Gelmis of Public Interest
Network Services, Inc. (New York). Service providers represented
at the conference, and now members of the Users' Group, include
independent telephone companies, competitive local exchange
carriers (both primarily facilities-based and those migrating
from the UNE-P resale model), and cable network operators ...
[read
more] |
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Spring 2004
: Press Release: ISPCON ISP-CEO Session |
| The ISPCON
ISP-CEO session covered a wide range of topics. We summarize
most of the key points of the session here—but nothing beats
actually being there ... [read
more] |
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February
25, 2003 : Press Release: Minnesota CLEC makes softswitch jump |
| Jaguar
Communications, a CLEC based in Owatonna, Minn., said today that
it has deployed MetaSwitch’s VP3500 Class 5 switch in its
regional switching center, replacing an existing TDM switch.
Jaguar, which provides services to
rural towns in southern Minnesota, will migrate existing
customers from its TDM switch in the next phase of the project.
The VP3500, offers more than 80 Class 5 services over legacy and
IP/ATM networks ... [read
more] |
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February
24, 2003 : Press Release: Converge! Network Digest; Jaguar
Communications Replaces Class 5 TDM Switch with MetaSwitch |
| Jaguar
Communications, a CLEC targeting rural communities in the
Midwest, has deployed MetaSwitch’s VP3500 Next Generation Class
5 Switch in a regional switching center in Owatonna, Minnesota.
The Metaswitch platform is delivering local dial-tone and
subscriber services in Jaguar’s next generation carrier network.
Jaguar plans to migrate subscribers to the MetaSwitch platform
from its existing end-office Class 5 TDM switch. Financial terms
were not disclosed ... [read
more] |
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January 31,
2001 : Press Release: Jaguar Communications to Build
IP-Based Integrated Access Networks Using PurePacket
Platform |
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WASHINGTON - Jan. 31, 2001 - Integral Access, Inc. -- -- the
intelligent MPLS access company
-- today announced that Jaguar Communications, Inc., an
integrated communications services provider, is using the
PurePacket platform to build next generation last mile networks
that converge voice, data, and multimedia services on a single
access link using the Internet Protocol (IP). Jaguar
Communications has purchased equipment from Integral Access to
offer a complete range of IP-based voice and broadband
communications services to business and residential customers in
40 underserved rural markets across Minnesota by the end of
2001. The company plans to deploy additional PurePacket systems
as it rolls out networks in second, third and fourth tier
markets throughout the Midwest. Integral Access will demonstrate
the PurePacket platform this week at the ComNet 2001 Conference
and Expo at the Washington D.C. Convention Center, Booth 480 ...
[read
more] |
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Press
Release: MetaSwitch Case Study |
|
Jaguar
Communications' Donny Smith has a vision that rural communities
deserve the same level of advanced telecommunications as those
available in major urban areas. This means going beyond basic
analog service (POTS) to deliver services such as broadband data
and packet voice through a common network, Web-based self
provisioning of telephony services and even advanced IP Centrex
solutions.
"I strongly
believe that, not only is it possible to deliver these
technologies to rural markets, but that by being smart we can
create a profitable business at the same time," explains Smith.
"The key is to leverage our investment in legacy equipment while
deploying the right next generation technology to take us
forward."... [read
more] |
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Press
Release: Upstart Magazine 2001 (April) |
| Picture Donny
Smith in a black Stetson and a duster. If you’ve met the CEO of
Owatonna, MN-bases CLEC Jaguar Communications, Inc.,
it shouldn’t be hard. It’s what he wears at every trade show.But
he’s not talking about the hat just now; he wants this story to
be about his new CLEC, not his nickname, Marlboro Man.” Instead,
he’ll tell you of Jaguar’s plan to bring IP-based services to
residents in 40 towns in southern Minnesota by the end of the
year. Though it sounds ambitious, the company’s talking about 40
very small towns - all with populations somewhere between 400
and 25,000 people. Most are weighing in on the lower end. Jaguar
plans to build a network based on Integral Access’ PurePacket
systems, which will allow voice and date services over a single
DSL line ... [read
more] |
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