BelAir and Choice Communications Bring Wi-Fi Mesh Network to St. Thomas
Rugged, carrier grade system achieves downlink speeds of up to 11 Mbps nearly a mile from BelAir nodes: strengthens wireless service offerings at popular tourist destination
Kanata, Ontario -/March 21, 2006 - Wi-Fi Technology News/- Local business owners, cruise ship crews and tourists on the island of St. Thomas now have anytime, anywhere wireless Internet access over a BelAir Networks scalable, carrier-grade Wi-Fi network deployed by Choice Communications, a local Virgin Islands telecommunications company.
The new wireless mesh network covers the Havensight Mall and ship dock, as well as Vessup Marina, American Yacht Harbor, the St. John Ferry Dock, Coral World, Coki Beach and other area hotels in this tourist hot spot. This network now expands Choice’s service portfolio from traditional MMDS wireless TV and broadband data to include high-capacity, flexible Wi-Fi networks that are ideally suited to St. Thomas’ hilly, volcanic terrain.
“St. Thomas is a very challenging environment – a Wi-Fi network deployed here must withstand tropical storms and intense summer heat, navigate around the nooks and crannies of our volcanic geography, integrate seamlessly into several existing network infrastructures, and be aesthetically pleasing to the more than 2 million tourists the island welcomes each year,” said Peter Varani, CEO of Choice Communications. “BelAir is the only carrier grade solution on the market that could stand up to such a demanding environment.”
Although the island of St. Thomas has a permanent population of approximately 50,000 people, more than 2 million tourists visit each year. Choice Communications now provides Wi-Fi service both inside and around the Havensight Mall and throughout the cruise ship dock yard. Crews and travelers on incoming cruise ships can use the wireless Internet service to check in with family members and friends. In addition, local shops, restaurants, hotels and marinas are using the service to support daily operations and as a value-added service to patrons.
Choice selected BelAir’s wireless mesh solution because it integrated smoothly with existing network infrastructures and can easily scale to provide coverage to other areas of the resort destination. For the Operational Support System (OSS), Choice selected WiBOSS Metro and WiBOSS Hospitality from BelAir Networks complementary solution partner, Airpath.
“Choice turned to us to provide a network infrastructure that would enable them to provide both public and private networks, track customer use, and scale along with increasing demand – while easily integrating with local networks and blending into the natural aesthetics,” said Ron Robinson, vice president of sales, BelAir Networks. “Choice Communications’ selection of BelAir validates our commitment to providing Wi-Fi networks that excel in the most demanding environments.”
Selected after a lengthy competitive review, the BelAir200s deployed in St. Thomas are four-radio, wireless multi-service switch routers that enable wireless networks with the highest network capacity and broadest reach especially in challenging deployments such as mountainous geographies and extreme weather conditions. The BelAir200 access radio modules use the 2.4GHz band to support Wi-Fi client access, while separate backhaul radio modules use 5GHz for the point to point links that form the wireless backhaul mesh that interconnects all of the BelAir200 nodes. The resulting system delivers unmatched capacity, security and scalability for metro applications.
Built specifically for outdoor deployment, the BelAir200 includes integrated antennas that focus Wi-Fi signals to beam directly into multi-story buildings from the outside, which eliminates the need for indoor access points and their associated wiring. Due to St. Thomas’ challenging geography and rocky ground, laying cables was not an option – BelAir’s ability to solve this problem with a carrier-grade solution was critical to Choice’s selection of the product.
About Choice Communications, LLC
Choice Communications is a growing communications provider that operates solely in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) and is headquartered in Havensight, St. Thomas. Its portfolio of service offerings includes wireless cable television service, dial-up Internet service, high-speed wireless digital subscriber lines (wDSL), paging and Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) services. All of these services are available for both residential and commercial subscription. Choice is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. (ATN), a publicly held telecommunications company also headquartered in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
http://www.choice.vi
About BelAir Networks
BelAir Networks is the first company to offer scalable, wide-area wireless broadband solutions with the highest quality for data, voice and video. BelAir’s wireless networking solutions are built on the only multi-service architecture for wide-area wireless broadband deployments of Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and 3G Cellular networks. Built specifically for outdoor deployments, BelAir Networks’ patented solution delivers the lowest cost per user and deploys in days, blending into the physical infrastructure of downtown business districts, hotels and resorts, and campuses. Founded in 2001, BelAir Networks is a privately held company headquartered in Kanata, Ontario. For more information, visit
http://www.belairnetworks.com.
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