STRIX ACCESS/ONE WIRELESS MESH DEPLOYED FOR HISTORIC NETHERLANDS CITY

Groningen Unwired offers Commercial Wi-Fi Access to Students, Faculty, Residents, Visitors and the Municipal Government.

CALABASAS, Calif – November 20, 2007

Strix Systems, the leader in high-performance wireless mesh networking, today announced that Groningen Unwired, a Strix premier partner, has deployed Strix’s Access/One® Network Outdoor Systems (OWS) for the historic Dutch city of Groningen.


Groningen, having a history which dates back more than one thousand years, is one of the most important commercial centers of the northern low countries of the Netherlands fostering industries such as dairy food production, textiles, tobacco and breweries linking many cities in the northern part of Europe.  The University of Groningen, founded in 1614, destined to educate lawyers, doctors and ministers of then, newly formed Protestant religion.   At the end of the Second World War the market center was destroyed and then rebuilt with striking architectures including the world-famous museum of Groningen.

The city of Groningen is the Netherlands center of education, innovation and technology.  The city received the title “best inner-city of the Netherlands in 2006” (Source: statistic yearbook 2006 of the city of Groningen). Today, Groningen, with a population of almost 181,000, 25% of the population are students who attend the University of Groningen (RuG), the Hanzehogeschool (Hanze Polytechnic) and others.  The city thrives not only as an education center, but as the main shopping center and agricultural enterprise for the entire region.

Unwired Holdings, designed, deployed and operates the state-of-the-art broadband wireless mesh network for Groningen under the name “Groningen Unwired”.  Currently in its pilot phase, the project is moving toward the full deployment of a citywide wireless mesh broadband network to serve the entire Groningen Community.  The Akkoord of Groningen, the initiator of this project, is a foundation consisting of the Hanze Polytechnic (Hanzehogeschool), University of Groningen (RuG), and the City of Groningen. They partnered with Unwired Holdings, a wireless broadband operator, who deployed and operates the network.

Alcadis, the European distributor of Strix Systems assisted Unwired with the design and deployment of the network. "The network was deployed in less than 10 working days" says Hans van Elsen, Sales Director at Alcadis. "The intelligence is in the network. Once nodes were up and running, configuring and maintaining the network needed very little effort".

The goals of this phase of the project are to showcase a broad range of IT-applications and solutions available to Groningen’s companies, government, public institutions and residents utilizing a citywide wireless broadband network, give an opportunity for stakeholders feedback leading to enhanced success of the greater project and provide qualified answers to technical and application related questions put forth by the Akkoord van Groningen.News Image

The foundation of the network is Strix Access/One OWS products deployed at the city center enabling access by students and faculty - approximately 40,000 people.  The network is meshed in areas central to the Hanze Polytechnic (Hanzehogeschool), University of Groningen, the cities teaching hospital UMCG and the municipality.  Students and faculty use their own Wi-Fi equipped laptops, PDAs, dual mode voice over IP phones and other Wi-Fi enabled devices.

"We’re testing and implementing a large number of applications that benefit from this high performance wireless network, including those needed by the municipality itself, public safety surveillance projects, mobile work force and much more." said Mitchell Kleinhandler, Managing Director of Unwired, “We chose Strix Systems because their modular multi-radio Access/One® system is the top performing system that provides the best coverage, gives the best return on investment and it’s easy to expand for additional coverage and services.”

The second phase of the network will provide access to the entire city.  Groningen Unwired will also expand its wholesale network services to secondary application providers.

 “The network that Groningen Unwired is building is a model for cities around the world that desire competitive services and innovative applications,” said Matt Holdrege, Director of International Strategic Sales for Strix Systems. “as we’ve seen time and time again, Strix Access/One performance and reliability is yet to be equaled, making it extremely attractive to those who need rock solid performance and reliability.”

The next phase of the project will include advanced applications for public safety and municipal projects including, mobile work force, security, parking control and transportation.  Future projects may include access to digital counters and municipal information,  internal management automation, facilities management, parking meter reading (parkeerwacht), inspection and supervising authorities, VoIP for employees municipal employees, information access for agents on the street concerning incidents, traffic-jam and traffic diversions management, dynamic movement route ring for ambulance, police force and fire department, The Tourist Information Office (VVV), interactive travel routes when exploring the city on foot (wandelroutes) initiated by the city with support for multimedia, INVIS project, University medical centre applications including: live observation, video communication for patients, VoIP telephony for patients, employees and Location based facility services.
Unwired Holdings was formed in 2007 to invest in and or deploy, own and operate large scale broadband wireless networks utilizing state of the art Wi-Fi and WiMax technologies. Unwired is focused on projects in both the United States and Europe and the company has offices in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and New York City, the United States.  The company’s first project was to build and operate the concept pilot in Groningen, the Netherlands.  Unwired is developing other projects in the Netherlands and the United States and most recently announced a teaming arrangement with IBM Corporation in the Netherlands to offer cities and other public entities an end-to end local wireless broadband solution.  See www.unwiredholdings.com
Alcadis BV is a 100% owned subsidiary of the HEMMP BV group. Alcadis is a Value Added Distributor that has its roots in system Integration and Consultancy of high end infrastructure. Alcadis was founded in 2000 as a result of the demand in the market from Telco-equipment vendors to set up a distribution channel with the ability to train, support and consult system integrators in their high profile projects
The Strix Access/One OWS modular mesh products deliver the largest capacity (up to six radios and 768 users per node, three to six times the norm), highest throughput (five times the norm at 35 Mbps), and best scalability (users can add more radio boards or new technologies). An independent wireless mesh test, sponsored by Light Reading and completed in June 2006, found Strix's OWS 2400-30 delivers the best throughput and capacity and the greatest scalability for voice applications and mobility/roaming. Strix networks scale to 10 or more wireless hops with near-zero throughput loss and latency, enabling customers to deliver real-time applications with a minimum of wired connections for a given area, which reduces CapEx and OpEx.
With over 500 customers in over 30 countries worldwide, Strix Systems is a worldwide Leader in Wireless Mesh Networking, in market share (according to Heavy Reading, Infonetics and In-Stat) and technology (Iometrix).  Strix’s Access/One products are the industry’s only modular (chassis-based) mesh systems, delivering the largest capacity, highest throughput and best scalability.  This new generation of products provides the broadband mobility and reach to support voice, video, and data applications. Sold globally by a network of first-class distributors and integrators, Access/One solutions have been deployed in hundreds of networks worldwide, outdoor and indoor, for service providers, metros, public safety, government, energy, manufacturing, transportation, hospitality, education, enterprises, and residential markets.  For Strix latest case video case study on public safety, municipal networks and railway networks please go to: http://www.strixsystems.com/video/missioncritical.html.  For more information about Strix Systems, please visit www.strixsystems.com.
Groningen Unwired (http://www.getunwired.nl/groningen/)

Unwired Holdings (http://www.unwiredholdings.com/)

Alcadis (http://www.alcadis.nl/)

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