[1st-mile-nm] Azulstar

[Gary Gomes]

It appears that Azulstar's WiMax initiative is not limited to Rio Rancho.

Azulstar to upgrade its existing municipal WiFi networks with WiMAX
Economics, performance and reliability driving upgrades to WiMAX
Enterprise connections up to 20Mbps symmetric to be offered, residential
connections to 10Mbps
Grand Haven, MI - March 17, 2008 - Azulstar today announced that it is
enhancing all of its existing municipal Wi-Fi networks with WiMAX
technology, using equipment from Airspan Networks and Redline
Communications. The networks being upgraded include Grand Haven, MI -
America's first municipal Wi-Fi network, which recently entered its 5th year
of operation, and are part of larger regional WiMAX rollouts by Azulstar
across 15 cities in the mid- and southwest USA including Grand Rapids, MI
and Albuquerque, NM. 
The highly advanced, licensed spectrum WiMAX network is in final stages of
testing in Grand Haven and first customers are being connected. The expanded
service delivers faster speeds, broader coverage and higher service levels
targeted at the enterprise, municipal and high-end residential markets. The
network will overlay the existing unlicensed Wi-Fi mesh networks, which will
continue to operate supporting visitors and residential customers as long as
there is demand. Legacy Wi-Fi customers wanting to move to WiMAX will
receive a discount towards their adaptor. 
Grand Haven Mayor, Roger Bergman said, "We are very excited to bring Grand
Haven back to the forefront of municipal wireless by adding WiMAX to our
existing citywide Wi-Fi network. We believe this is a technology platform
that directly benefits our community's future and immediately reduces our
internal IT costs." 
Tyler van Houwelingen, Azulstar founder and CEO added, "WiMAX dramatically
improves the economics, performance and reliability of municipal wireless
and is one of the most significant technologies of our time. We applaud the
FCC for making more WiMAX spectrum available in the USA. Our customers will
be delighted with the service." 
According to Kevin Suitor, Vice President of Marketing and Business
Development at Redline, "We are confident that Azulstar can achieve its
objective of bringing better broadband services to more customers in Grand
Haven and across their networks with our proven WiMAX solutions. With more
than 150 deployments of our RedMAX(tm) products around the world, and the
world's first complete WiMAX Forum Certified(r) system, Redline delivers the
most advanced and highest capacity WiMAX network available today." 
Highlights of the planned WiMAX network now being tested include: 
*	Up to 20Mbps symmetric speeds for business and 10Mbps for
residential and mobile connections. 
*	IEEE 802.16e-2005 mobile WiMAX technology which incorporates several
advances such as MIMO/beam-forming antennas and Scalable-OFDMA. 
*	Licensed-spectrum operation providing service with up to 99.999%
reliability. 
*	Direct support for VoIP telephony, IP-Television and municipal
applications such as automated meter reading, intelligent transportation and
public safety/homeland security access. 
Azulstar will continue its strategy of owning and operating municipal
wireless networks in regions where it can also deploy licensed-spectrum
WiMAX. In existing Azulstar projects where Wi-Fi technology is the only
viable option due to spectrum limitations, Azulstar has migrated to a
subcontractor role, assisting the municipalities and partners achieve their
goals, but no longer acting as the network owner. 
About Azulstar 
Azulstar Inc., based in Grand Haven, Mich., was formed to enable the rapid
rollout of mobile Wi-Fi/WiMAX networks and services and is recognized as a
leader in municipal wireless and intelligent transportation. Azulstar
leverages a combination of licensed and unlicensed wireless technologies to
serve the needs of an entire community. Azulstar teams with governmental
agencies, leading companies and private investors to offer mobile broadband
voice, data & video services. 
WiMAX is a registered trademark of the WiMAX Forum. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners. 
Media Contact:
Ken Gaebler
Walker Sands Communications
(312) 543-0654
Email: ken at walkersands.com

Gary C. Gomes 
Managing Member 
SoundView Networks, LLC 
5085 Copper Bar Road 
Las Cruces, NM 88011 
575-521-1606 
Mobile: 575-202-6383 


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