Unwired picks DragonWave to backhaul Vividwireless' Perth WiMax network

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 04:43

IT Industry - Strategy

Unwired Australia has chosen DragonWave to supply the wireless backhaul for the mobile WiMAX network it is rolling out for associated company, Vividwireless in Perth.


Unwired will use DragonWave's Horizon Compact product to provide base stations with, initially, up to 200Mbps of backhaul capacity.

Seven Network, which owns Unwired Australia - the operator of proprietary broadband wireless networks in Melbourne and Sydney - announced earlier this month the formation of a new company, Vividwireless, to rollout a mobile WiMAX network in Perth. Vividwireless will be a customer service and marketing organisation, and Unwired will build and operate the network. Huawei has been named as the sole base station and non-exclusive CPE supplier. The network is scheduled to go live in March 2010 with 150 base stations.

Unwired CEO, David Spence, said: "DragonWave's reputation for proven WiMAX backhaul and expertise is well established globally. "We put the Horizon Compact through a battery of field trials, and it consistently demonstrated reliable performance, advanced spectral efficiency and ease of use in degrees that differentiated the DragonWave solution from others that we evaluated. In addition, the Horizon Compact is a highly scalable platform in a small, all-outdoor form factor that will support our growth."

DragonWave president and CEO, Peter Allen, said that the deal was the company's first major win in Australia. "This is an important partnership and we look forward to building upon this win across the region."

DragonWave Horizon products operate in both licensed and unlicensed radio frequencies between 6 and 38GHz with claimed ultra-low latency transport of up to 4Gbps per link, and carrier-grade (99.999 percent) interference-free performance. The company is headquartered in Canada and is represented in Australia by TR Telecom.