Minneapolis has signed on to become the anchor-tenant of a municipal Wi-Fi network that will be owned and operated by service provider US Internet. The award, a big win for US Internet and Belair, supports the city’s desire to enhance public safety efforts and bridge the digital divide and offers US Internet a foundation from which to launch advanced, premium services throughout the area.
The “Wireless Minneapolis” project will span the entire 60-square-mile city and will offer businesses and residents high-speed Internet access from 1 to 3 Mbps for a current cost of $19.99 per month. US Internet also will offer a $24 or $29 product that will provide 5 or 6 Mbps for those niche customers that require greater bandwidth.
US Internet won the bid with a mobile broadband mesh networking solution from BelAir Networks and will leverage the Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities of the BelAir platform to support emergency services efforts as well as eventual moves to Voice over IP (VoIP) and mobile Wi-MAX.
As a Minnesota-based company, Lange says US Internet already had a reputation in the local community and was well positioned to win the contract, but he notes that the BelAir technology was “a big part of the reason we won.
To meet Minneapolis’ public safety needs, US Internet will employ a module that plugs into the BelAir platform to create an alternative communications medium over the 4.9 Ghz frequency range. The platform also enables US Internet to utilize Wi-MAX for backhaul and supports 802.16d for an eventual move to mobile Wi-MAX.
US Internet will employ both a dual and multi-radio approach to deliver ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage throughout the Minneapolis metropolitan area. “The dual radio method increases performance by separating access and backhaul and the backhaul becomes a true switched mesh, so it essentially operates as a big Ethernet switch,” says Jim Freeze, SVP of marketing and alliances at BelAir.
BelAir Networks product portfolio includes the flagship four-radio BelAir200, the dual-radio BelAir100, the BelAir100C and BelAir100S featuring point-to-multipoint backhaul, and the single-radio BelAir50C and BelAir50S, and the six-radio BelAir300, all managed by the BelAir BelView Network Management System.
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