CONXX to Cover Cumberland’s 10 Square Miles With Approximately 120 Wavion WS410 Access Points, Delivering Superior Throughput and Building Penetration at Half the Comparable Cost
SAN JOSE, Calif., December 4, 2006 – Wavion, a company transforming the metro Wi-Fi market with a new category of access points (APs), today announced an agreement with CONXX of Cumberland, Maryland to add approximately 120 WS410 spatially adaptive APs to their network. CONXX designed, built and operates Maryland’s Allegany County Network, known as “AllCoNet,” one of the first municipal wireless networks in the United States. The addition of Wavion’s APs will enable the network to deliver high-speed wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) over Cumberland’s 10 square miles.
The unique and powerful digital beamforming technology embedded in Wavion’s spatially adaptive APs provides extended range and penetration, minimizes dead spots, requires two-thirds fewer units than other outdoor APs to cover the same area, and supports the variety of applications and services CONXX is extending wirelessly to Cumberland.
The system was installed as a part of a performance contract between Johnson Controls and Cumberland, Maryland, to retrofit several city buildings and utility services – including replace water meters with wireless models. The project’s savings are a major driver behind the county’s decision to enhance the network and the services provided to its residences.
“With this purchase, AllCoNet will be able to deliver wireless Internet access to hundreds of homes and small businesses in Cumberland that have no other way to access the digital domain at high speeds,” said Lee Fiedler, mayor of Cumberland. “Thanks to Wavion’s technology, Johnson Control’s service savings and CONXX’s network, we’re able to bring the economic and social benefits of wireless broadband to our citizens, visitors, municipal workers, and public safety personnel.”
CONXX’s homegrown network – a necessity after national telecommunication corporations refused to upgrade services for the mostly rural county – provides carrier-class communication services to public safety, government, education, commercial, and residential users throughout Allegany County.
“AllCoNet is a literal lifeline for this community,” said David Kartchner, president of CONXX. “When Cumberland wanted to add Wi-Fi to AllCoNet, we tested a dozen different outdoor access points before discovering the dramatic improvements offered by the Wavion WS410. We need about 12 Wavion spatially adaptive access points to cover one square mile of Cumberland. It would take three times as many APs from any other manufacturer to deliver that performance.”
Unlike other APs in the market, Wavion’s spatially adaptive AP is based on six radio transceivers and six antennas, and employs advanced digital beamforming technology. Based on a custom-designed ASIC optimized for the outdoors environment, Wavion’s technology significantly improves the link gain and quality to off-the-shelf, 802.11 standards-based Wi-Fi clients – such as those found in nearly all recently manufactured notebook computers.
“We’re honored to help transform Cumberland’s municipal Wi-Fi deployment through the world’s first metro-scale access points with digital beamforming,” said Dr. Mati Wax, Wavion’s founder and CTO. “What Wavion delivers today already outperforms conventional APs, and we’re not done yet.”
About Wavion
Wavion is transforming the metro Wi-Fi market with a new category of spatially adaptive access point. The company’s digital beamforming and SDMA technologies are the first and only to resolve the significant performance, penetration and profitability challenges facing metro Wi-Fi deployments. Wavion is privately held and backed by world-class investors including Sequoia Capital, Tel Aviv-based Elron Electronic Industries Ltd., Star Ventures, and BRM Capital. Wavion has offices in Silicon Valley and Yoqne’am, Israel. To learn more, please visit Wavion at http://www.wavion.net.
About CONXX
Founded in 2004, CONXX has developed network architecture and infrastructure to help rural communities overcome both digital and economic divides. The CONXX Carrier Communication Platform™ combines carrier-grade telecommunications technology at the core with cost-effective Ethernet technology at the edge. The CONXX Carrier Communication Observer™ is a full-service, web-based network management and operating support system for municipal networks. The privately held company’s wired and wireless networks support multiple services and service providers. CONXX is headquartered in Cumberland, Maryland, and maintains a regional office in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, visit http://www.conxx.net
Media Contacts:
Alan Menezes
Wavion, Inc.
408.261.7000
alanm@wavion.net
Kawika Holbrook
Sterling Communications, Inc.
408.395.5500
kawika@sterlingpr.com