Give Your Customers A Last-Mile Advantage
Providing a complete wireless last-mile solution earned a VAR a
$37,000-plus project with a wireless ISP (Internet service provider).
As more end users discover the benefits of mobile computing, wireless connectivity plays a key role in determining the success of an implementation. MapleNet Wireless bills itself as a turnkey broadband wireless integrator and differentiates itself from its competitors by providing each component of a last-mile broadband wireless connection. For instance, the company provides customer consultations, wireless site surveys, wireless tower designs and installations, wireless radio and equipment implementations, and postsale services.
One project win highlighting the integrator’s expertise was for MERIT Network, Inc., a nonprofit ISP governed by Michigan’s public universities. MERIT contacted MapleNet while working with Baker College’s Allen Park campus. “There was a 9-mile gap between the college and MERIT’s closest PoP [point of presence],” recalls Steve Carender, national sales manager at MapleNet. “MERIT was helping its customer choose among three last-mile options, which included running fiber optics, leasing a DS-3 [digital signal three] from a local telco, and purchasing a wireless last-mile solution.” Even though the cost of going wireless was the least expensive option (comparable to about two years of leasing a DS-3), the college was skeptical about wireless WAN (WWAN) performance. “With MERIT’s permission, we worked with Baker College’s VP of IT and put him in touch with IT directors/VPs at various higher education institutions,” says Carender. “Each institution was able to validate that our WWANs had five-nines reliability [i.e. 99.999% uptime, or, only 5 minutes of downtime per year] and throughput starting at 45 Mbps [megabits per second], and some going above 100 Mbps.”
After alleviating the end user’s fears, MapleNet won the contract and began the implementation with a site survey. The integrator used a tool from Micropath that allows technicians to input terrain data from the U.S. Geological Survey database, plus information about buildings and other obstructions, as well as antenna size and height. Following the survey, MapleNet installed a 100-foot Nello tower outfitted with a Redline AN-50 unlicensed wireless radio. The integrator also installed a Radiowave narrow bandwidth dish antenna, galvanized antenna mounts, cables, and grounding hardware, which were sourced through value-added distributor TESSCO Technologies.
Turn A One-Time Wireless Install Into A Long-Term Relationship
The radio transmits at 5.8 GHz and, with the help of the tower and a 1.5-degree narrow bandwidth antenna, enables a 9-mile line-of-sight wireless connection from the college to MERIT’s downtown Detroit PoP. The implementation was completed over several months — most of which entailed obtaining FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and zoning permits for the radio tower. “Working with customers to obtain zoning permits is another area we differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” says Carender. “The process entails applying for the permit, attending a board of zoning appeals meeting, and making sure the board’s requirements are met before ordering the tower.”
The project earned MapleNet more than $37,000, and more recently, Baker College contacted the integrator about installing another link at its Owosso, MI campus. “The college had a very accelerated timeframe to get the connection in place,” says Carender. “From survey to installation, we were able to complete the high-capacity link in less than two weeks.”
Baker College currently has 45 Mbps wireless links joining both facilities to the Internet. In the future, however, as the college’s enrollment continues to grow — and especially if it decides to add VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), Baker may need to upgrade to 100 Mbps links by upgrading its radios to FCC (Federal Communications Commission)-licensed radios. When either of those situations occur, MapleNet will be ready to perform the task — from site survey to postsale services.