Telecom Ottawa Expands Ottawa Wi-Fi Zone Using BelAir Networks

SAN FRANCISCO -- Oct. 26, 2004 -- Telecom Ottawa Limited has expanded its trial deployment of BelAir Networks' scalable, wide area Wi-Fi system in the heart of Ottawa's downtown. The widened access area enables Telecom Ottawa to provide broadband Wi-Fi access to municipal, business and roaming users along Elgin Street, one of the downtown core's key business areas.

"We were looking for a solution that would easily scale and be uncomplicated to deploy and manage, and BelAir has performed very well in our initial technology trial deployment," said Dave Dobbin, chief operating officer, Telecom Ottawa. "Combining BelAir's carrier-grade system with our fiber backbone gives us a low-cost, effective way to test market Internet access."

Telecom Ottawa increased its deployment from 2 to 20 BelAir200 units. Mounted on utility poles and private establishments, the majority of the units provide Wi-Fi access to a seven block region of the downtown area, including hotels and high-rise apartment buildings. The network provides Wi-Fi service along the full length of Elgin Street, at Ottawa City Hall, in the Byward Market area, around the Capital Hill Hotel, and at the Radisson Hotel Ottawa Parliament Hill. Telecom Ottawa has also deployed a BelAir200 to provide Wi-Fi coverage in the public areas of the Nepean Sportsplex, a sports and recreation facility in a suburb of Ottawa. For a limited time, Telecom Ottawa is offering the Wi-Fi service to users within the new coverage area at no cost.

"We share Telecom Ottawa's vision to help Ottawa-based organizations improve their connectedness and effectiveness through broadband solutions such as Wi-Fi," said Bernard Herscovich, CEO of BelAir Networks. "In partnering with them to bring wireless access to buildings in the downtown area, we honored to help Telecom Ottawa achieve that vision."

Telecom Ottawa's mission is to be the broadband services provider of choice in the communities it serves by delivering innovative and affordable solutions to customers through its advanced network, expertise and partnerships. The company turned to BelAir Networks to help it test a cost-effective, broadband wireless service for its customers.

The BelAir200 deployed by Telecom Ottawa is a four-radio, wireless internetworking platform that enables wireless networks with the highest network capacity and broadest reach especially in challenging deployments such as high-density metro regions. The BelAir200 access radio modules use the 2.4GHz band to support Wi-Fi client access. Separate backhaul radio modules use 5GHz for the point-to-point links that form the wireless backhaul mesh that interconnects all of the BelAir200 nodes. The resulting system delivers unmatched capacity, security and scalability for metro applications.

Built specifically for outdoor deployment, the BelAir200 includes integrated antennas that focus Wi-Fi signals to beam directly into multi-story buildings from the outside, which eliminates the need for indoor access points and their associated wiring. This outdoor-in approach complements Telecom Ottawa's existing fiber infrastructure and enables fast and easy metro-scale deployment.

About Telecom Ottawa

Telecom Ottawa is a broadband data and Internet services provider based in Ottawa with operations in Eastern Ontario. The company's 10 Gigabit Ethernet network is the largest metropolitan-wide network in North America, with more than 600 kilometers of fiber optic cable. This broadband infrastructure enables the provision of bandwidth capacity for data networking, high-speed Internet access, e-business applications and multimedia services. In providing services to businesses and public-sector organizations, Telecom Ottawa also delivers an extensive portfolio of ISP capabilities such as email, web hosting, wireless and remote Internet access.

About BelAir Networks

BelAir Networks is the first and only company to offer scalable, Wide-Area Wi-Fi. Built specifically for outdoor deployments, BelAir Networks patented solution integrates easily and transparently into existing network and physical infrastructure of downtown business districts, hotels and resorts, and college campuses. BelAir Networks' Wide-Area Wi-Fi delivers maximum network capacity at the lowest cost - in days, not weeks. Founded in 2001, BelAir Networks is a privately held company headquartered in Kanata, Ontario. For more information, please visit www.belairnetworks.com.