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FWA company Tarana has just raised $50 million in funding.
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CEO Basil Alwan said that the company may move from just AWS to a multi-cloud situation in the future.
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Bridging the digital divide is the big market for the cable, DSL and satellite broadband alternative.
Fixed wireless access (FWA) company Tarana may be mulling multi-cloud as part of its future, according to chairman and CEO Basil Alwan.
Alwan visited Silverlining’s palatial digs in midtown Manhattan to talk about the company. He explained that Tarana currently solely uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its cloud connection. He noted that this enables wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) to deploy their hardware within a couple of days. Customers include Africa’s largest mobile operator MTN and Midwestern rural Internet provider Wisper
We asked Alwan wether Tarana would ever move another cloud provider. “I’m sure at some point we’re going to have a second cloud most likely,” Alwan said. Tarana uses a containerized, Kubernetes-based system that was partially designed by Google, so it should “theoretically possible” to move to multi-cloud system, the CEO said.
He grumbled about Amazon’s pricing, noting that they were collecting every statistic on the Tarana system and jamming it in the cloud. “We’ve had to optimize, optimize, optimize,” to reduce costs, Alwan noted.
FWA funding and growth
Tarana, a 14-year old company, has just pulled in a $50 million round of funding lead by Digital Alpha Advisors. “The capital we need right now is really for growth,” Alwan said
“The digital divide is so big — unserved and underserved is so big,” Alwan claimed, that is the main market that Tarana will focus on and serve.
In fact, he said that an unnamed major cable provider is already starting to use Tarana kit as its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
He also expects Tier 1 and Tier 2 service providers to use Tarana as an alternative to DSL. The system can already deliver 400 Mgps, way more than DSL can usually provide.
Alwan is also looking to more overseas expansion. Alwan notes that the Tarana FWA system can serve 5GHz and 6GHz frequencies, as well as 3.5GHz CBRS.
“We are the end-game product for broadband,” Alwan boasted. “You never have to come back and put fiber in if you’re willing to spend a bit for it.”