Case Study/ Testimonials

A large Mexican retailer with stores across Mexico was looking to provide Internet connectivity to their stores, however connecting all these stores through a local ISP was a very costly expenditure. They made the decision to implement their own network to reduce their dependency on service providers and to solve their communications needs.

The Mexican retail chain is one of the largest department stores in Mexico and is similar to Walmart in the US and Canada. There are more than eight hundred stores in Mexico in 22 provinces.

After looking at several competitive solutions, the customer chose an EION Wireless broadband wireless solution. A wireless network was built to provide communications to stores in cities with two or more locations. The wireless network provided the Internet access they desired, plus important store-to-store communication for data transfer (inventory, mail, reports, invoicing, credit applications, etc.) and the possibility to introduce VoIP.

EION’s Ultima3 and LibraPlus were the products of choice in this application. The EION Wireless products were deployed in a point-to-point configuration with links ranging from 5-15km. The LibraPlus has proven itself to be very cost-effective and suitable to the client’s application so well, that they are extending the EION Wireless solution to more of their locations.

The customer is relying on EION Radios to achieve the inter-connectivity between the stores at the city level with objective to bring all the stores to a central MPLS location in each city. Then all cities are backhauled to the Main Data Centre in Culiacan City at the north of Mexico using MPLS network. So far in the network, the retail giant has deployed more than 2000 Radios from EION distributed all over Mexico. The radios are a mixture of the legacy Ultima3 systems and the next generation EION work horse LibraPlus 5860.

Trial equipment from several different vendors was tested. Reliable performance was the key priority addressed. The EION Wireless solution performed better and the link was more reliable than competitive solutions.

EION’s LibraPlus enables suburban and rural applications with its superior range. Point-to- point and point-to-multipoint applications give your network the flexibility to grow with your business. The superior long range of the LibraPlus without sacrificing throughput performance of the link, make this product the clear choice of our customers. The LibraPlus implements EION’s proprietary TrustLink protocol that reduces the effects of interference and boosts throughput in outdoor wireless networks.

EION Wireless has established a worldwide network of partners to provide customers with very professional and superior levels of service. We rely on the experience of our worldwide channel network to help plan, install and deploy wireless networks and it is objective of EION Wireless to provide our partners with the support and attention they need to be highly successful.

For this deployment EION Wireless collaborated with Gold Channel Partner Sinwire. SINWIRE Inc is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with a presence in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil. SINWIRE was founded with the vision of providing enterprise customers with the best products and services and a superior level of customer service. The company is committed to providing excellent technical support in fluent Spanish and unbeatable pricing for wireless products throughout all Latin America.

El Chaco is a small town about 2 ½ hours east of Quito on the edge of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. Its 6ooo inhabitants, who have not left to seek their fortune in Quito or in other countries, earn a living mostly from agriculture or small businesses. El Chaco is neither rich nor poor. Nobody is starving and nobody has riche. The people of EL Chaco have learned to make do with the basics.

The same can be said for the town’s infrastructure. The community has schools but they are in a bad state. They have a health station but no hospital and a doctor is often hard to find. Residents have access to the phone but the lines are rare and calls expensive, and of its roads, some are good, mostly bad, sometimes impassable.

The unique features that El Chaco has to offer, (besides the outstanding natural beauty that is so often found in Ecuador), is an oil pipeline running straight through it. The river nearby is a paradise for all kinds of water sports like rafting and kayaking, ranking as one of the best in the world.

Still, despite all this beauty and resources, the community of El Chaco soon came to realize that if it was going to succeed on a global scale, something had to be done. Fundacion ChasquiNet is a small NGO based in Quito Ecuador. The work Chasquinet does can be simply described as supporting the strategic use of the available information and communication technologies in the social sector. It works on a national and international basis with Telecenter, schools, hospitals and other NGO’s.

Over the years, Chasquinet has established an “open door” policy, meaning that Chasquinet will not go into the communities and establish its own projects but waits until the communities come to Chasquinet and ask for support. In this way it is ensured that the work Chasquinet is doing is based on the real needs of the communities and not the needs perceived by Chasquinet for a community. Chasquinet enters a partnership with the communities with the goal of community development. The community of El Chaco was compelled to seek help from Chasquinet.

The community of El Chaco recognized that they needed help with their connectivity problems, and to make ICTs work for the social and economic development of the whole community. In 2003 the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC) and the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) contacted Chasquinet asking if they would be willing and able to pilot Wi-Fi equipment in Ecuador.

EION, a Canadian company, was chosen to provide the equipment, which consisted of three Wi-Fi sets with surround coverage of 5 km and one set having an additional 25 km pointto-point extension.At the same time the community of El Chaco contacted Chasquinet asking Chasquinet not only to help with their connectivity problem, but also to help to make this ICT (Information Communications Technology) work for the social and economic development of the whole community

El Chaco had previous experience with the Internet, consisting of a single computer at a restaurant. The connection was expensive and slow but it had already convinced many residents of El Chaco of the potential of the new ICT’s. There were several fundamental questions and the first question the community was looking to answer was: How can we connect EL Chaco to the Internet in a cost efficient way?

What better place then to test the Wi-Fi Equipment then El Chaco, but installing the equipment is just a small part of a successful project. The most important question that needed answering was: Connectivity for What?

Social transformation can only come through personal transformation. A series of community meetings were called for and it soon became clear that there were several more questions that needed to be answered, including: How can the Internet help us in our schools, in our local government, in the small and medium enterprises, in the ecology, health services and tourism? How can we make it sustainable not only in a financial but also in a technical, social, cultural and political sense?

In order to find the answers develop a strategic plan for the implementation of the new information and communication technologies, Chasquinet undertook a number of training and planning workshops in El Chaco. The training did not just concentrate on the technical aspects of using computers, but more importantly on the strategic use of these technologies, and the impact they will have on social and economic development within the community.

Social transformation can only come through personal transformation, so in addition to the technology-centric workshops a “Healing Touch” workshop was organized for the community. Healing Touch is a medical technique that combines traditional indigenous healing traditions from North and South America.

This process proved to be a vital step in the sustainable community development of El Chaco, as it responded to deeply rooted medical and cultural needs of the community. After six month of training and consultations the community came up with their plan how to implement the Internet in El Chaco.Creation of a Community Telecenter at a town center managed by a local group. The highlights of the plan were:

In the first phase, the Telecenter, the local Government and the Health Center would be connected via Wi-Fi to the Internet.

The Telecenter would not only provide connectivity services to the community but will also offer training - particularly to teachers and pupils, local government officials and local businesses.

In the second phase, other locations such as schools, hotels, businesses, and police station will be connected to the Wi-Fi network, pending training of all users.

Trial equipment from several different vendors was tested. Reliable performance was the key priority addressed. The EION Wireless solution performed better and the link was more reliable than competitive solutions.

The plan was immediately put into action. The Telecenter was created and the workshops started and soon the Telecenter was a focal point of the community. But there was still one problem; it was a Telecenter without the “Tele”, without Internet connection. Even if the Wi-Fi could be installed now, it needed to be connected to the Internet. Dial-up and/or any cable-based solution were out of the question due the high costs.

A technical investigation was undertaken with the result that a combination between VSAT and Wi-Fi would be the best and most cost effective solution. The installation of the EION Wi-Fi equipment turned out easier then first thought. Everybody involved was nervous to see if this new technology would do what it promised, but after just a day and a half, the Wi-Fi was up and running.

Throughout the installation local technicians from the telecenter took part in order to learn how the system worked, to enable it, to maintain it in the future, and to act as “experts” for further installations. El Chaco was now part of the global Internet, and even with only just three initial connection points the impact could be felt immediately.For the first time teachers and pupils had access to quality teaching materials.

For the first time families could communicate at a low cost with their loved ones working abroad.

For the first time the major and his staff could access relevant governmental resources.

For the first time the nurse could get advice from doctors in Quito.

For the first time traders could offer their goods outside the local market.

Just a few examples from many. As one local women expressed it: “I feel like El Chaco is for the first time on the map”.

Many remote and underserved communities around the world have the desire and drive to advance both socially and economically in the global arena. Though this need is eminent, basic access to resources, financing and expertise are preventing development in such regions. Through partnerships with government agencies, social development organizations and local groups, many communities like El Chaco are being given the opportunity to excel in the digital revolution. This case study is a perfect example how a relatively simple and economic project can have such an immense impact on a community. Though Wi-Fi, in combination with VSAT technology, can be a cost effective way to connect rural communities, the provision of such technologies will only have an impact if the system is implemented by the respective community and used by them according to their needs. Training, strategic use, and community involvement are more important then the technology itself.

Written by Klaus Stoll, President– Fundacion ChasquiNet

The quality of life available in Central Washington State attracts many entrepreneurs and high tech professionals whose activities require significant bandwidth. Despite having a population of only 40,000 in an area that measures about 7 miles by 10 miles, Washington’s Wenatchee Valley is home to 8 WISPs. All of them use the unlicensed 2.4 GHz radio band.

Beginning in 1997, Northwest Telephone (NWT), a wholesale provider to ISPs in Washington State, has combined fibre optic cable with unlicensed wireless solutions to build a network covering about 1,500 square miles in Central and Eastern Washington State including the Wenatchee Valley. NWT’s business model is to build the network, provide the connection to the home or business and sell the bandwidth to ISPs. In turn, ISPs that use the NWT network provide sales and marketing functions as well as first level support.

With 8 ISPs all using the same signal band in a relatively small area, NWT must frequently take steps to try and mitigate radio interference. NWT is the largest carrier in the region and as a result it is also the one with the most to lose due to radio interference problems. Short-term solutions have included using attenuators to knock down the signal strength, employing signal polarization and redirecting antennas to catch side loads. Medium term solutions have included migrating the older areas of the wireless network to the 5.8 GHz band and then transferring the 2.4 GHz equipment to less congested regions. The long term solution will be to form a consortium of service providers in order to coordinate radio deployments and so reduce radio interference. The end result will be happier customers and less effort expended retuning networks.

NWT currently uses about 200 Wi-LAN legacy radios as CPEs and for backbone transport in order to serve a mix of residential and small business end customers. The typical site consists of 3 sectors fed with a radio, providing an average throughput of about 3.2 Mbps per sector. NWT runs up to 30 CPEs per sector with the typical configuration being about 15 CPEs per sector.

In the future NWT’s strategy for dealing with radio interference will be to build overlapping 2.4 and 5.8 networks. Then, as interference becomes a problem, transition existing customers from 2.4 to 5.8.The 2.4 radios will eventually be redeployed to cities with populations of less than 10,000 people.

The more metropolitan areas will be converted to a 5.8 GHz platform such as EION’s Ultima 3. One of the benefits of EION’s Ultima 3 platform is its all- in-one design, which makes the deployment process fast and simple. The Ultima 3 combines the antenna and radio together eliminating the need to run a large coaxial cable into a customer’s premise.

Whenever possible, NWT tries to keep its installation to the outside of the customer premises. The ideal arrangement is to put a CAT 5 box mounted on the outside, terminate the NWT connection there and have the ISP complete the internal wiring. If NWT needs to, it can unplug the indoor from the outdoor and insert NWT’s own test unit powered by a battery

NWT typically puts all base station components into an environmental, airconditioned cabinet. They usually put routers into each base station with typical base station cabinet costs ranging from about 10 to 15 thousand US dollars. NWT typically puts all base station components into an environmental, airconditioned cabinet. They usually put routers into each base station with typical base station cabinet costs ranging from about 10 to 15 thousand US dollars.

While DSL can often be deployed more cheaply than wireless, it suffers from latency much more than wireless does. NWT has found that many people that play games on the Internet prefer wireless connections because of the low latency. Andrew says that NWT’s next move will be to provide VoIP, to any broadband connection in the ecosystem.

The most “bang for the buck” for VoIP is expected to come from the wireless system because for the people that are typically outside the core telephone network system, getting extra lines etc. is sometimes impossible or if it is possible it is a lot more expensive than merely adding another telephone VoIP line.

The NWT wireless network is not 100% redundant to the subscriber. Therefore, radio reliability is extremely important in order ensure maximum customer up time. NWT makes use of Washington State’s extensive fibre optic network wherever possible, utilizing the fibre network to drive Ethernet connections out to base stations so that communities that didn’t have any kind of broadband network before can now get access very quickly for a minimal amount of money.

Gujarat state covers 196 thousand square kilometers and its government provides administration and services to over 48 million people.This daunting task has been made easier with the recent implementation of a wireless communications system that provides voice, video conferencing and WAN data services between government offices.

The Gujarat State Wide Area Network, or GSWAN was initiated to enhance communications between various offices located in major centers throughout the state. The objective was to provide voice, video and data services to and between State, District and ultimately Taluka level offices.

After a through engineering investigation, EION’s VIP 110-24 Broadband Wireless System was chosen for this project. The high performance and versatility of the system was a significant factor.

The network diagram for Ahmedabad is shown below. It is one of 25 cities in the fully deployed network. It consists of 19 nodes and connects Police, Courts, and many other government offices together. This type of communications abilities greatly enhances the Government’s ability to carry out it’s duties and responsibilities.