Cityspace to extend Bristol's wireless network » Central Government » 24dash.com

Cityspace, the UK-based provider of urban digital networks, today has been selected by Bristol City Council to deliver a major extension to its wireless network.

The extension will expand the existing network to cover key business areas, transport routes and several disadvantaged communities and once again make it the largest of its kind in the UK.

The wider network will support plans by the council and its partners in Connecting Bristol to deliver wider social and economic change across the city and boost Bristol's bid to win the national Digital Challenge for which it is one of ten finalists (www.digitalchallenge.gov.uk)

The existing 3km network has proven successful in its aim to provide the diverse community of Bristol with free access to council information and the internet and today attracts over 15,000 users a month.

The new network extension will continue to provide free broadband internet access to the public as well as paid-for services to business.

However, the main driver will be the ability for the council and other public bodies to develop  mobile working and wireless applications to improve services to the customer, cost effectiveness and efficiency.

Some key areas where it is expected to help include:

* Mobile communications and reporting for council service teams
including parking attendants, food hygiene and trading standards inspectors, surveyors and  engineers
* 'Nomadic' CCTV to address crime hotspots in the city
* New community information, engagement and skills and training
initiatives to provide new opportunities to people living in disadvantaged areas
* Further improvements to the city's growing network of  real time
passenger transport information services across the city

"A high quality, citywide wi-fi network is critical to the economic success of the city and its wider city region," said Councillor Barbara Janke, Leader of Bristol City Council.

"It can help us improve council services, enable local businesses to become even more competitive and remove some of the obstacles that stop people in disadvantaged communities accessing the information and services they need.

"This new extension to our existing city centre network will be built on a solid and proven framework and can help us develop real, valuable applications that will make a difference to the people of Bristol."

Marc Meyohas, CEO, Cityspace, said: "It's a real vote of confidence to be chosen as preferred partner by Bristol to deliver this showcase network, based on the success of our pilot.

"This is an exciting opportunity for Cityspace; we are proven at achieving robust, fast municipal networks which deliver public information and internet access, but we've turned the corner now and the challenge is to deliver real, valuable applications, and as part of a wider initiative with Bristol City Council and its partners in Connecting Bristol we believe we're well placed to set the standards."

The specification for the network will be based on the very latest BelAir Networks suite, which is fully compatible with the existing network and interoperable with future WIMAX frequencies.

Work and planning is underway on this second phase of the network, which is expected to take 12 weeks.

This will allow for testing of the first council applications to begin in March 2007, once details of the agreement between the city council and Cityspace have been finalised.

The network is made up of 4 radio nodes mounted on streetlights and/or buildings.

The 4-radio architecture allows Cityspace to create a blanket of 802.11 b/g 56Mbps access across the city with relatively few fixed egress points.

Fixed Pre-WiMax backhaul costs are considerably reduced as Cityspace can touchdown at existing internet concentration points.

Each node in the network has up to 75Mbps of backhaul capacity to its peers, offering unsurpassed levels of capacity and expandability.

Connection to the internet is via conventional 100Mbps Ethernet or Ethernet over fibre.  Licenced WiMax backhaul is an option for the future, as it WiMax mobile access.