Airborne Networks Announces first true WiMax Mesh Micro BTS
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Airborne Networks has announced successful lab trials of WiMax cards for its patented Micro BTS. Steve Webber, CEO at Airborne said
“The successful trial of our WiMax card means that the very low latency and high bandwidth mesh connectivity of our already deployed micro BTS is now available for WiMax. The successful infrastructure businesses of the future will be those which have an absolute focus on delivering the best experience for end users, and doing it cost effectively, and these are the operators we want to support. The hugely variable levels of coverage and bandwidth available over traditional cellular networks are already becoming less acceptable to end users. With the right architecture, WiMax Mesh can provide a cost effective, high bandwidth connection to consumers where cellular coverage can’t, both in urban and rural deployments, for developed networks and for Greenfield sites.”
The Airborne WiMax Approach
At Airborne, we see WiMax as a technology which disrupts the current business models of cellular infrastructure providers and wireless network operators and which offers the opportunity to focus services more effectively on the needs and aspirations of end customers at significantly reduced cost. Many existing manufacturers have simply added WiMax offerings to their existing cellular architecture and made amendments to their existing product portfolio. This approach means that the true benefits of WiMax cannot be realised by operators or their customers. Airborne solutions have been designed to extract the maximum benefit from WiMax, both in terms of quality of service delivered to customers and cost savings for operators.
Our solutions are built with widely available components, in a patented architecture which allows simultaneous WiMax/Wifi/3G subscriber access and seamless communication between the air interfaces via a common IP platform. This offers existing service providers a smooth, low cost migration to WiMax and offers fast, cost effective deployment of new networks with inexpensive, relatively low-skilled labour. The Airborne solution can also offer cost effective, easily deployed solutions to coverage and capacity issues for existing networks.
Why Airborne Networks?
We believe that WiMax offers the opportunity to put consumers at the heart of an operator’s business model in a way which has been very difficult to achieve until now. We have developed our patented architecture for what we call the “Outside In” network – the network which is focussed absolutely on delivering the best experience for end users. This means network access at high bandwidth, available as close as possible to the end user, delivering better Quality of service and increased battery life for devices. In a traditional cellular network, typically 60% of infrastructure cost lies in the radio access network. WiMax offers the opportunity to reduce these costs drastically, and yet many manufacturers offer WiMax solutions which do not take full advantage of this opportunity. Airborne’s WiMax solution delivers approximately 40% CAPEX savings per site in urban deployments, compared to a WiMax cell based architecture.
For rural deployments, the Airborne solution can deliver CAPEX savings of up to 80%.
Airborne Networks Ltd.
UK : Bowhay, Shillingford Abbot, Exeter, Devon EX2 9QQ
WALES : Springboard Innovation Centre, Llantarnam Park, Cwmbran,Torfaen, Wales NP44 3AW
Tel : +44 (0) 870 787 5205
Fax : +44 (0) 870 056 9427
Web : www.airbornenetworks.co.uk