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Airpath News
1/4/2005
Airpath Wireless Inc. and Summit Technologies are bringing wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) Internet access to Montpelier, the capital of Vermont. The project, Airpath's 10th municipal Wi-Fi network, is being conducted in partnership with MontpelierNet, a community Internet cooperative with a mission to bring affordable broadband to the city, and SoVerNet, a Vermont-based Internet service provider.
Summit Technologies, which is based in Williston, Vt., was selected by MontpelierNet for its strong knowledge of wireless system design and implementation as well as its regional market insight. Summit will deploy and manage the network. Airpath was selected by Summit for its proven capabilities managing large-scale, municipal Wi-Fi networks. "Airpath's software represents the best-of-breed in this industry," said Johannes Jobst, CTO of Summit. "The interface is mature, and its capabilities are powerful".
The initial Wi-Fi deployment will be done in the 146 year-old Vermont State House, where the General Assembly convenes each year from January to May. The State House network will provide Internet access to 180 legislators, staff and members of the general public. Because the State House is an historic building, installation of the wireless equipment was done in close consultation with the curator, David Schultz.
The link to the State House is part of a larger point-to-multipoint wireless network developed by MontpelierNet to serve the city of Montpelier and local business. The next phase of the MontpelierNet project calls for the expansion of Wi-Fi service in the central downtown area of Montpelier. With a population of just over 8,000 people, Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the U.S. Nevertheless, city officials and local community leaders recognize the importance of technology and view the MontpelierNet project as an essential tool to enhance economic development in the region.
"High-speed Internet access at affordable prices is probably more important to small rural states like Vermont than it is to large metropolitan areas because it's already difficult for businesses to get to larger markets and people to get to information," said Jack Hoffman, director of the Vermont Broadband Council.
"The MontpelierNet project and the State House Wi-Fi network is an excellent example of what can be accomplished when local government, state government and the business community work together. Now we just have to replicate this model in many other communities throughout the state."
Airpath provides the management platform for large-scale Wi-Fi systems in the US in San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Antonio, Tempe, Pittsburgh and Nantucket; and Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. Summit Technologies provides wireless and network consulting, and support services throughout North America.
"Our experience in rolling out large-scale wireless broadband networks is enabling Airpath to make these deployments as routine as possible, so we can offer a predictable and dependable outcome at a reasonable cost," said Todd Meyers, CEO and Founder of Airpath. "It's evident that as a result of these new 21st century systems, that a wide-variety of new business opportunities are created to help drive the local economy," he added.
"The cost to bring Wi-Fi metro service to such a large area as Montpelier is less than one-tenth the cost of putting in cellular base stations or DSL cabling across the city," said Al Levy, president of Summit Technologies. "We are not talking about small isolated hotspots, we are talking about connecting our communities," he added.
About Airpath Wireless
Airpath Wireless, Inc. is a global leader in the wireless broadband access industry, the company has created several extremely powerful hosted-software applications that enable their clients to deploy, operate and manage high-speed public Internet Access locations. Airpath's WiBOSS (TM) application simplifies deployment, operation, and management of hotspots with powerful features such as automated end-user AAA, e-commerce, billing and provisioning. The Airpath Provider Alliance (APA) is the global standard for ubiquitous Wi-Fi roaming, with 600 providers operating over 2000 hotspots (and counting) in more than 23 countries. The company is a privately held, venture-funded corporation headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with an additional support office in Toledo, Ohio and Singapore.
About Summit Technologies
Summit Technologies, based in Williston, Vermont, designs and deploys enterprise-scale wireless LANs, WANs and Wi-Fi Hotzones throughout North America. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, large healthcare organizations, and municipalities. www.summitwireless.biz
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