“Bandwidth hungry businesses who cannot risk losing their Internet connectivity can use the service as a backup to their existing wired connection because it provides a totally separate high performance wireless Internet link,” said Graham Mclean, MD of CI-Net, a fully managed wide area networks, hosting and internet solutions company, which is introducing its RedKite ‘leased line in the sky’ WiMAX-ready Internet service to cover a 10km radius of Central Birmingham.
A RedKite wireless base station will transmit the symmetric, uncontended bandwidth for subscribers to pick up using outdoor antennas.
Mclean said that most network managers recognise they can get extra resilience by using multiple service providers for Internet connectivity and not relying on a single point of failure.
“But if you go for multiple ‘wired’ services, this only covers problems that happen within individual service providers’ environments,” he pointed out. “You’ll still lose connectivity if there are problems in your communications room, along the ducts routing cables to your buildings or in the local exchanges used by all service providers.”
With RedKite there is greater resilience because users get diverse – wired and wireless – routing into their buildings.
“And because we offer ongoing load balancing between the two connections we ensure that customers will get value from both. This ‘always on’ arrangement means they have the piece of mind of knowing that RedKite is fully operational all the time - able to kick in automatically if there is any problem with the wired connection,” said Mclean.
The RedKite wireless base station will be positioned on the newly refurbished seven storey, Livery Place office building near Birmingham Snow Hill rail station. The site is a multi-let commercial office space undergoing a £2m refurbishment by property company Highcross. In an innovative arrange with Highcross, tenants in the building, which will open in the New Year, will be able to benefit from the RedKite service by sharing the bandwidth that will be feeding the base station. They will have access to high capacity, reliable connectivity, at least 30 per cent cheaper than the cost of installing their own leased line.