Sandersville, Georgia, is implementing a non-line-of-sight (NLOS), multi-sector wireless system from Navini, said to be the first of its kind. The entire town and much of the surrounding area totaling up to 300 square miles is a giant wireless “hotspot” now. It provides high-speed wireless broadband connectivity to area businesses and residents as well as Sandersville’s police and fire departments for added security and homeland defense applications.

The City of Sandersville, Georgia, population 6,500, is located in Washington County about 130 miles southeast of Atlanta. Sandersville maintains its own telecommunications and data infrastructure that serves the surrounding communities in addition to the township.

Over 50 subscribers were using the system within a week after deployment. “Subscriber uptake has been so rapid, we have had to order additional equipment to accommodate the rush,” stated Sandersville Telecommunications Manager, Kelly McQuaig.

The Navini wireless broadband system was designed and deployed by Tri-State Broadband, Inc., an Atlanta-based company. Tri-State was formed 2 1/2 years ago and has since helped over a dozen rural communities establish wireless Internet for their residents and businesses such as Adel, Georgia.

“This state-of-the-art system is one more step in our plan to close the digital divide in Sandersville,” stated Mayor James W. (Jimmy) Andrews. “We have greatly benefited from our decision several years ago to offer fiber and dial-up Internet access to local businesses and residents. Now, with our new wireless Internet system, we can offer affordable high-speed service to outlying areas of the county as well.”

The system provides mobility for the Sandersville Emergency First Responders. In addition, the system offers continuous coverage in heavily wooded areas. The signal from the transmitting tower to the customer modem can go through trees and around other obstacles to provide reception. “It’s like your cell phone–you don’t have to see the tower to get connected,” said Tri-State Vice President of Sales and Marketing, John Overley.

Navini, originally a proprietary system in competition with Arraycomm and Flarion, has joined the WiMax Forum. Navini is said to be particularly interested in mobilized 802.16e solutions. The solution in Sandersville may be Navini’s proprietary mobilized system (since 802.16e won’t be ratified until March of 2005). The first 802.16e solutions aren’t expected for a year or two.

Houston County, Georgia, was supposed to be the first county in the US to have blanket wireless coverage using WiMAX technology.

Intel is backing the project and will use Houston as a proof of concept for the WiMAX technology. Intel donated a $30,000 wireless technology laboratory to the high school and has carried out various education-oriented tests there using tablet PCs and collaborative white boards. Terry Smithson, education marketing manager at Intel, said a successful roll-out in Houston could lead to WiMAX-based services being extended to large areas of Georgia.

“I would like to highlight Georgia nationally as a state that other states should look to to move into a wireless model,” he said. Wireless coverage for the whole county is likely to require two towers, each with a 30 mile radius, and pricing would be around $15 to $30 a month for end users, plus a $25 PC card.

Intel presented 32 Tablet PCs to students and teachers at the high school, randomly selected to participate in the research. Intel also presented 20 laptops to the school s foreign language department and woods programs. The laptops will be used to create two mini-labs. Promethean, maker of the ACTIVboard Classroom Collaboration System, was selected to be part of the Intel Model School Program.

Intel’s Marketing Manager for State and Local Government, Paul Buther, was helping to write a business plan for them.

Kevin Werbach thinks there could be two forms of wireless connectivity in major cities. One would be the carrier 3G infrastructure, offering reliability but high prices, the other would be cheaper and serve as a platform for more diverse applications.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, October 25th, 2004 at 4:57 am.