A new service has been deployed in Birmingham that enables businesses to automatically switch over their Internet connection to a 2-100 MB per second WiMAX-ready fixed wireless link in the event of disaster.
The system will use a RedKite wireless base station to transmit symmetric, uncontended bandwidth for subscribers to pick up using outdoor antennas, the company says.
The wireless base station will be hosted on the newly-refurbished seven storey Livery Place office building near Birmingham Snow Hill rail station. The £2m refurbishment project, carried out by Highcross, will transform the building into a multi-let commercial office space. It is expected to open in early 2009.
Tenants in the building will have access to the RedKite service by sharing the bandwidth that will be feeding the base station. The company says this will result in a high capacity, reliable connection costing at least 30% less than the cost of installing their own leased line.
The service will cover a 10km radius of central Birmingham and is being implemented by CI-Net.
Graham Mclean, MD of CI-Net, said: “Bandwidth-hungry businesses who cannot risk losing their Internet connectivity can use the service as a backup to their existing wired connection because it provides a totally separate high performance wireless Internet link.”
Mclean added that most network managers are aware that using multiple service providers for Internet connectivity can result in extra resilience for a company.
“But if you go for multiple ‘wired’ services, this only covers problems that happen within individual service providers’ environments,” he said. “You’ll still lose connectivity if there are problems in your communications room, along the ducts routing cables to your buildings or in the local exchanges used by all service providers.”
He added that this service provides greater resilience because users get both wired and wireless routing into their offices.
