Document Actions
Sify selects Redline for five-city WiMAX business network
Businesses gain broadband access choice as India’s Sify expands services to enterprise market.
Redline Communications Group Inc. and Sify Technologies Limited announced
that Redline's RedMAX products have been selected for a multi-city
business-to-business WiMAX network in India. Sify has deployed business-class
Internet services using Redline's fixed wireless products in Delhi and Mumbai.
Sify has also begun its WiMAX network expansion to Bangalore, Hyderabad and
Chennai. "The launch of our WiMAX services in these five cities will further our
mission of being an enabler and catalyst of the Internet for positive change in
India," said Arvind Mathur, Chief Architect, Sify Technologies Limited. The
incremental regions are scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
Connecting India's masses is a popular government initiative where a goal of 20
million broadband users by 2010 is in place. Tata Communications (formerly known
as VSNL) announced it plans to blanket 115 cities with consumer WiMAX services
using Telsima radio gear by March 2009.
Bharti Airtel, state-owned
BSNL (with a focus on rural and small town coverage) has partnered with SOMA
Networks, and government telco MTNL have also announced Indian WiMAX plans.
The new wireless network is intended to deliver reliable, managed last mile
solutions to enterprise customers that support business critical applications
over Sify's IP-MPLS network. Enterprise customers include banks, manufacturers,
retailers and other enterprises that require reliable and secure communications
networks.
The operator will use Redline's RedMAX products operating in the 3.3~3.4 GHz
frequency band. Decision criteria for the WiMAX equipment included WiMAX Forum
certification, high subscriber capacity, support for Service Level Agreements (SLAs),
security and cost-effectiveness.
India has an estimated population of 1.148 billion with
only 60 million Internet
subscribers (5.2% penetration). India's TRAI telecom regulator recently
reported that 3.13 million citizens have broadband Internet access. Visiting
local Internet cafés (many of which are operated by Sify) for email, VoIP, and
even web conferencing is an increasingly popular activity. India is one of four
emerging markets for broadband wireless communications, often abbreviated as
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). The BRIC countries are some of the most
populous in the world, while also representing the least "connected" societies
for Internet access and communications.
By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology, LLC
_____
tags:
