California's Center Unified School District Chooses Aperto Networks
for
Educational Broadband Access
Second-Generation BWA Solution Serves K-12 Network
Milpitas, Calif. June 24, 2002 - Center Unified School District
in Sacramento County, California, has selected and implemented Aperto
Networks' second-generation broadband wireless access (BWA) solution
to serve its five-site K-12 educational network. The school district
uses 5 GHz frequency spectrum, Aperto's PacketWave®
base station and subscriber units to self-provision up to 8 Mbps
(with up and down data rates of up to 20 Mbps) data access per site
to over 3,000 students and 267 classrooms, district-wide.
Center Unified had been planning for over one year to upgrade from
2.4 GHz wireless LAN extension to robust, cost-effective, high-speed
Internet access and LAN interconnection using 5.8 GHz. "We
had to meet very specific goals with new wireless technology,"
stated Marvin Lord, Center Unified's District Technology Coordinator.
"We had to be able to do client-sharing from a single site,
with a multi-sector base station. With a new junior high school
coming online, we had to add users and locations very inexpensively,
and increase the network's overall user-friendliness, speed and
responsiveness. Users really notice a significant service improvement
since we deployed Aperto's solution -- our performance needs are
being met, well within budget limits."
The Federal Communications Commission established the 5 GHz spectrum
as an unlicensed band (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure,
or U-NII) to enable the public sector, non-profit agencies and others
to have affordable access to spectrum for broadband services. Since
then, many new providers, pioneering educational groups and non-profit
users have obtained broadband access without the interference problems
and noisy transmissions that can result from using frequencies in
the 2.4 GHz ISM (Instrument Scientific Medical) band.
"Center Unified has pioneered the use of broadband wireless
to serve a public community, fulfilling the FCC's vision of affordable
access to public agencies and schools. Aperto has leveraged our
rapidly expanding base of enterprise users worldwide to provide
extensive field experience for the district's multi-site environment,"
explained Reza Ahy CEO and Chairman of Aperto Networks. "We
worked with Marvin to further enhance ease-of-configuration and
legacy network integration, fitting seamlessly into his K-12 network.
Center Unified has been an excellent early-adopter in the educational
sector, and has further reinforced our belief that wireless can
help make broadband access available to all."
"We are one of the first California school districts to use
this technology for our entire district," continued Lord. "I
wouldn't hesitate to recommend Aperto's systems to others - we have
been able to serve more users with high-performance access and with
lower CAPEX and OPEX than with any other alternative."
About Aperto Networks
Aperto Networks is a leading provider of multiservice broadband
wireless access systems. The company was founded to provide a breakthrough
solution to one of today's critical network bottlenecks - last-mile
broadband access. With practical, scalable systems and patent-pending
technology that supports new wireless builds and complement existing
wireline broadband access technology, Aperto addresses service provider
needs for rapid network deployment, multiservice scalability, ease
of installation and cost-effectiveness. Aperto will dramatically
shorten the lengthy provisioning cycles of broadband services by
enabling rapid service provisioning across dense urban to suburban
locations. Investors in Aperto include Alliance Ventures, Tyco Ventures,
Innovacom (France Telecom), DMC Stratex Networks, Oki Electric Industry
Company, Mitsubishi International Corporation, Ridgewood Capital,
Satwik Ventures and Redwood Ventures. For more information on Aperto
Networks, go to www.apertonet.com.
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