800.250.1517

 

 

 

 News

 

May 9, 2006
A letter from Senator Norm Coleman.  Click image below for larger version.


 

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

 

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
 

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]
 
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]

 
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]
 
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]

 
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]
 
January 31, 2001 : Press Release: Jaguar Communications to Build IP-Based Integrated Access Networks Using PurePacket Platform

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]

 
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]

 
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]
 

 


 






 CopyrightŪ Jaguar Communications