Columbia Energy Expands Its Wireless Backhaul Network with Solectek 7000 and Excel PTP Links
Broadband Service is to Expand Into Rural Areas in Eastern Washington State

San Diego, California, May 15, 2009

Solectek Corporation, a leading manufacturer of wireless broadband equipment based in San Diego, announced that Columbia Energy, LLC, a regional network operator based in Dayton, WA, is expanding its wireless backbone network using Solectek’s 7000 and Excel PTP links. Columbia Energy has used past generations of Solectek backhaul kits and decided to upgrade the network in order to meet the growing bandwidth needs and to expand their coverage areas in Columbia County, WA. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Rural Electric Association, Columbia Energy’s mission is to deliver Utility Automation Services and broadband services in areas where such services are not otherwise available in a cost effective manner. As an independent operator, Columbia Energy is relying on wireless technologies for most of their connectivity needs.

“We are pleased to serve Columbia Energy in their mission to bring broadband to rural communities. Our products are well suited to bring the backhaul and distribute bandwidth in places where big telcos are not interested in providing services”, said Dr. Eric Lee, CEO for Solectek. “We have been happy with Solectek products for a number of years and when we were considering our expansion plan, we continued to use Solectek’s Point-to-Point backhaul products in our network.” said Mr. Shanuj Sarin, Manager of Internet Systems at Columbia Rural Electric Association.

Of particular interest to Columbia Energy is the new 5 GHz Excel Series. Based on MIMO and antenna diversity, the Excel series delivers multiples of data rate from previous generation radios and reaches 100 Mbps of actual payload throughput. “We are seeing the overall traffic grow in our network. The extra bandwidth in new backhaul links certainly come in handy”, says Mr. Sarin at Columbia Rural Electric Association. The Excel series is available with integrated antennas or in connectorized version.

About Solectek Corporation
Founded in 1989, Solectek has long been a leader in the broadband wireless networking industry. Headquartered in San Diego with offices/partners worldwide, Solectek has installations in over 80 countries. Solectek manufactures a full line of broadband wireless connectivity products from last-mile access, video surveillance transport to high capacity backhaul up to 1 Gbps in 2 to 80 GHz frequency bands. For more information, visit www.solectek.com.

Contact:
Mike Cothill
Solectek Corporation
858-450-1220

About Columbia Energy L.L.C
Formed in 2000, Columbia Energy, L.L.C. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Rural Electric Association. Columbia Energy was created to offer non-electric value-added communications services to customers in the service area and the local communities at large. Columbia currently operates a high-capacity broadband backbone in Walla Walla, Columbia, Franklin, Umatilla and Garfield Counties.