Nortel Powers FairPoint WiMAX in Northern New England

FairPoint Communications has chosen Nortel (News - Alert) to power its new WiMAX wireless broadband services for the Northern New England region. Equipment for the services has reportedly been supplied by Airspan Networks.

 

Nortel's WiMAX (News - Alert) network solution is one of the access platforms FairPoint will use to bring high-speed Internet to communities in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. According to officials, some of the subscribers in these region have never before been served by broadband and thanks to the WiMAX network they will enjoy the speedy connectivity needed for bandwidth-intense applications like VoIP, streaming video and online gaming.

 

Nortel’s end-to-end fixed WiMAX solution (802.16d) will enable FairPoint to bring broadband to homes and small businesses over high-speed wireless connections. The company will not have to build or upgrade wired connections to homes in remote areas, and instead they will only have to place a small WiMAX terminal at customers' homes or businesses. This terminal allows the customers to access the wireless WiMAX network in the same way they would plug into a wireline network.

 

Airspan, a provider of WiMAX-based broadband wireless access networks and Nortel's partner in delivering fixed WiMAX solutions, is offering a complete solution that includes wireless base stations and terminals. The solution enables the high-bandwidth capability of FairPoint's WiMAX network that provides such applications as YouTube (News - Alert) videos and fast music downloads. Nortel will also provide premium support service to FairPoint, which will ensure that their customers always have fast and reliable network access.

 

Scott Wickware (News - Alert), general manager of WiMAX, Nortel noted that their company is a one-stop shop for WiMAX, combining technology with the highest quality of applications and services to create the right end-to-end solution for any operator. Nortel's WiMAX solution will provide FairPoint with the speed to support today's popular online applications, the coverage to reach remote areas, and the services to keep it all running efficiently.

 

FairPoint's fixed WiMAX network will also use free, publicly available spectrum for transmitting its wireless services. This will eliminate the need to purchase or lease specially licensed spectrum for its network.

 

Eric Stonestrom, CEO of Airspan explained that millions of homes and businesses in the U.S. have no access to broadband, and carriers are increasingly seeing the 3.65 GHz band made available by the Federal Communications Commission in late 2007 as the most cost-effective way of delivering services to meet this pent-up demand.

 

Airspan has been getting a tremendous response and according to Stonestrom, their company has been fielding this solution internationally for years, and because of that experience can offer the highest stability and performance for U.S. customers.