An innovative WiMax trial, co-ordinated by HEAnet, is now taking place at Dublin City University (DCU), to bring WiMax, aka, long-range wireless internet connectivity, to staff and students.
The 60-person strong trial is part of HEAnet’s Wireless Broadband Strategy to bring ubiquitous broadband access for all its network users.
Irish wireless telecoms firm AirSpeed Telecom has installed the equipment and is providing commissioning support for this trial WiMax network at DCU that provides 6Mbps to the trial participants with the help of a WiMax USB modem provided by HEAnet with BreezeMax 4motion technology from Alvarion.
ComReg provided a trial licence for this WiMax network.
The trial’s aim
It is hoped that the outcome of the trial will be to better understand the logistics of delivering high-speed Wi-Fi on a college-wide basis all across campus and in the near-campus environment.
“There has been extremely positive feedback from our user group of DCU students and staff to the HEAnet WiMax trial,” said James Healy, network manager, DCU.
“We are now seeing students connecting to the WiMax network rather than using Wi-Fi on campus, particularly outdoors, as the WiMax network has superior connectivity outdoors.”
Economic imperative
The managing director of AirSpeed, Liam O’Kelly, added that a combination of education and better broadband services are vital for Ireland’s economic growth.
“We recently worked with HEAnet to roll out high-speed network services of up to 300Mbps to facilitate HEAnet’s network extension to the Galway and Donegal Gaeltacht regions and this has proved to be a huge success for the participating universities, NUIG and GMIT,” added O’Kelly.
By Marie Boran
Photo: Liam O’Kelly, managing director of AirSpeed Telecom
