Aptilo Networks Powers City Initiative in the USA to Provide Wireless Citywide High-Speed Internet Access
Milestone event in evolution of Municipal Wireless movement – St. Cloud ranks #1 in the world with 100% free citywide high-speed wireless Internet access as a public service
STOCKHOLM — Swedish-based Aptilo Networks has entered into an agreement with the city to supply its Metro Mesh Service Management System for the city-wide wireless broadband network throughout the entire city.
The network was developed by MRI, a local system integrator, for the city and based on infrastructure from Aptilo Networks and Tropos Networks. The deployment is an expansion of an existing hotspot – a 12-block area called Cyber Spot, which has been live since July 2004 — to provide citywide broadband for use by residents and businesses.
In order to provide economic, social and educational opportunities for every citizen and business in St. Cloud the City is providing broadband Internet access across the City limits (15 square miles) 100% free to all using wireless technology. The system includes coverage to the local hospital, schools and small and medium businesses making this the most extensive free-to-user, Mixed Use Network in the country. To ensure a high Quality-of-Service with scalable performance, a fault-tolerant version of Aptilo’s Metro Mesh Service Management System was chosen to enable seamless fail-over on servers in the event of a network interruption. Aptilo supports massive scalability for the thousands of users expected to register at launch. And users only need to register once to receive wireless city anywhere in the city.
“We are excited to make a wireless local area network available to our residents,” said Glenn Sangiovanni, Mayor of the city of St. Cloud. “The city of St. Cloud is well on its way to provide high-speed wireless Internet access to all citizens in the city, fulfilling our vision of providing universal connectivity to all residents and visitors.”
Under the agreement, Aptilo will also be responsible for remote monitoring of the system. A central helpdesk provides technical support and analyses problems.
“The wireless broadband networks based on Wi-Fi and WiMax are steadily growing, and within a few years these will be integrated with today’s GPRS and 3G networks. Aptilo’s system handles today’s needs in administrating Wi-Fi and WiMax networks, and is also capable of handling the forthcoming convergence“ said Eric Dentler, Vice President of Sales – Americas, Aptilo Networks.
Aptilo is a leader in Next Generation Service Management software for large scale wireless deployments, delivering advanced subscriber and session management, customer care, billing and branding. Target segments include Muni WiFi and Enterprise Guest Internet Access. Aptilo systems are in operation in more than 30 countries.
Media Contact:
Hillary Call, Public Relations Manager
Aptilo Networks AB
P: (917) 414-9262
hillary.call@aptilo.coma