metro

WiFi a critical tool in Minn. bridge disaster recovery

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:59:56 -0400

A partially completed metro WiFi network in the Twin Cities is playing a key role in the response to the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. The network, constructed by USI Wireless, is helping the city with disaster communications, performing critical functions such as moving large mapping files to the recovery site and supporting wireless cameras used to help with the recovery effort.

For more about the WiFi network's role in the Minneapolis bridge disaster:
- read this article from PC World

Making money on WiMAX locally

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:01:34 -0500

This is not an earth-shaking story, but it may be a harbinger of things to come. 4G Metro, a wireless network operator working with Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas-based Trinity Railway Express, will launch what may well be the first end-to-end broadband wireless service offered by a major U.S. public railway, this summer. The TRE network will benefit from a joint marketing and sales agreement between Nortel and Colubris Networks.

TRE is a cooperative public railway linking Fort Worth, Dallas and the DFW International Airport. The company is planning to offer its 5,000 daily passengers with high-speed wireless Internet access and a myriad of information and entertainment services, including breaking news and sports, local advertising and other video content presented on 27-inch LCD screens. 4G Metro is a privately owned wireless services company which will own and operate the network under a public/private partnership agreement with TRE. 4G Metro will use Nortel's Municipal Wireless Solution, including wireless mesh, WiMAX and optical technologies, to deliver integrated voice, data and multimedia to passengers throughout the 36-mile TRE route.

For more on the TRE experiment:
- see this Colubris press release

Mesh metro-WiFi comes to Europe

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 19:01:35 -0500

Mesh technology was developed on this side of the Atlantic and has been slow to gain a beachhead in Europe. It is beginning to do so. HiTel Italia and RoamAD announced an OEM partnership to respond to the growing demand for metro WiFi mesh solutions in the European market. HiTel is already selling RoamAD-based metro WiFi systems in Europe and expects to be able to announce its first metro WiFi deployment in Europe within the next 30 days. HiTel said it was gearing up to be a major player in European metro-WiFi, and that it was initially going to concentrate on providing WiFi services for public transportation systems, small communities and inner city commercial and residential districts.

Patrick Scarlata, managing director of HiTel, said: "As European carriers and ISPs are developing a better understanding of the capabilities of large-scale WiFi networks, they are increasingly demanding mobile VoIP/VoWiFi as well as mobile data as core requirements on their networks. We are therefore pleased to be partnering with RoamAD, the leader in mobile WiFi network technology."

For more on the HiTel-RoamAD deal:
- see this RoamAD press release (.pdf)

ALSO: Telecom Italia has decided to conduct field trials of Korea's home-grown WiBro wireless broadband implementation of the 802.16 standard. WiBro competes directly with Europe's HiperMAN implementation of 802.16 from the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), which these days is being hyped around the world under the brand name WiMax, which itself is not a standard. Report

Cisco to announce mesh product

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 20:01:39 -0400

Cisco is about to launch its first WLAN mesh solution next month. Airespace, which Cisco acquired for $450 million last December, had planned on bringing out a two-radio mesh product in March, so Cisco's mesh plans are not exactly a surprise. Hints--but only hints--about the product may be gleaned from the fact that Metricom's Bob Friday now works for Cisco. At Metricom he developed the first metro-scale mesh system. For our nostalgia buffs, Metricom was known for two things: It pioneered metro-wide networks with its Ricochet network back in the late 1990s (remember those radios on top of utility poles?), and it's known for running through a spectacular amount of investors' money in less than two years (it closed down in 2001, with 50,000 subscribers). There was an effort to revive it in San Diego by a company which bought Metricom's assets in bankruptcy court, but things did no go far.

Offering mesh networks to cities is more acceptable now than it was five years ago. But relying on proprietary technology, a la Metricom, is not the way to go (not that Cisco is going that way), as many companies now compete with each other to offer cities metro-wide networks based on 802.11.

For more on Cisco's mesh plans:
- read Dan Jones' Unstrung report