Ever wondered whether Wi-Fi technology works in haunted houses? Nortel Networks Ltd. is about to find out, as the Canadian vendor announced Wi-Fi deployment-contracts with three mid-sized cities, including Occoquan, Va., known as one of America’s most haunted towns.
Situated 20 miles south of Washington, D.C. on the banks of the Occoquan River, the notoriously ghost-ridden town has chosen Nortel to supply and deploy a Wi-Fi mesh network to deliver broadband service to the city’s merchants, residents and the thousands of tourists who visit the town each year.
Angela Singhal Whiteford, director of Municipal Wireless Solutions at Nortel, explained that although Occoquan has only about 400 full-time residents, the town attracts droves of tourists in search of spooky thrills. Local legend suggests that Occoquan sits on the grounds of a Native-American burial site.
The free-access network will be sponsored by ads from local businesses, including Occoquan’s historic waterfront district, which features more than 100 antique, art and craft shops and restaurants, as well as a bustling marina.
Nortel said it’s also unwiring another tourist mecca, Niagara Falls, N.Y. The company is providing Niagara County with a Wi-Fi networks that will service heavy pedestrian zones and business districts with free Internet access via public-private sponsored hot spots.
And in Carlsbad, N.M., Nortel is set to deploy a wireless hot zone covering the city’s commercial downtown area. Whiteford said city officials hope free Wi-Fi will help expand economic opportunities by attracting and retaining new businesses. A spokesman said Carlsbad considers itself to be on the brink of massive and rapid economic growth due to the its relatively close proximity to California, making the area an attractive location for high-tech and hospitality businesses
Nortel’s announcements are no surprise since the company said in August that its plan was to chase down contracts in small and medium-sized markets and university campuses and leaving the large markets to its competitors.
“The business case for large-scale metro projects just doesn’t make sense,” said Whiteford. “Bigger cities put out RFPs for almost no-cost for service providers. They look to make their payback within 24 months. But medium cities are willing to sit with you and negotiate. They help find anchor tenants, and they help build customer momentum. The smaller cities need broadband the most, they’ve been neglected. They are definitely easier to do business with.”
However, Nortel is under contract to deploy Wi-Fi networks in some major markets, including Moscow and Taipei, Taiwan. In the United States, the company has won contracts to unwire Annapolis, Md.; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Waukesha County in Wisconsin, along with several university campuses, including The University of Arkansas and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Whiteford said Nortel is pumping more money into its municipal Wi-Fi division, as evidenced by the upcoming opening of a Wi-Fi showcase lab in Research Triangle Park, N.C., new promotions for its Wi-Fi solutions and collaborations with applications vendors.
Beginning next year, Whiteford said the curious-minded can “kick tires” at the company’s Wi-Fi lab and learn about Nortel’s ecosystem partners, including vendors that provide in-vehicle communication services, automated meter reading, digital video surveillance, asset or fleet tracking and monitoring, along with mobile television.
Nortel’s dual-radio Wi-Fi gear is housed in a six-sided unit that contains a half-dozen directional antennas that radiate equal energy in 360 degrees. The company noted that directional antennas have a narrow transmission swath, usually about 60 degrees, which means energy is transmitted in a certain direction that may not be the direction needed by the incoming or outgoing signal. On Nortel’s units, each of the six panels contains a directional antenna, which Nortel says provides greater strength and flexibility as the unit works to communicate with other mesh nodes within the network.
In effect, Nortel insists that its product dynamically selects the antenna that’s best positioned to communicate with a neighboring antenna.
Nortel’s said it’s new “get started” program enables cities to implement trial networks using either five or 10 access points available in bundled packages priced at $24,000 and $30,000, respectively. Each bundle includes 7220 access points, mounting kits with power cords, wireless gateway 7250, passport 1424 NAP router, Optivity NMS and three days of onsite engineering and mentoring.
