DragonWave, a global supplier of next-generation point to point microwave radio systems, has announced that Altitude Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Altitude Group, has selected DragonWave products to provide high capacity Ethernet backhaul as part of its rollout of WiMAX broadband services across France.
Altitude has helped WiMAX service introduction in France, and its first deployments took place in 2004. To date, DragonWave's Ethernet backhaul solution has been selected for four regional deployments in the Département de la Haute Garonne, Département des Deux Sèvres, Département du Jura and Département des Pyrénées Atlantiques.
"WiMAX has matured beyond the developmental stage. Today it is being selected as a legitimate broadband access option by more and more French customers. To accommodate this growth we required the highest performance IP backhaul solution available." said Fabrice Ballart, Directeur Général with Altitude Infrastructure. "A broad portfolio of frequency options provides the flexibility we need to introduce WiMAX in any region. Its superior payload-per-hertz efficiency means we can optimize our spectrum usage and overall backhaul investment without compromising the end user experience. These benefits have helped fuel our business and provide a better return on network investments."
Customer uptake in Altitude Telecom's services is said to have intensified across business and residential markets. The operator recently announced it is accepting hundreds of new orders per month and this year plans to double the number of base stations in its WiMAX network to six hundred.
Altitude Infrastructure is deploying DragonWave's AirPair products operating in licensed frequencies between 6 and 38 GHz. The products are claimed to ensure interference-free performance, ultra-low latency to support real-time services, and scaleable Ethernet connectivity up to 800 Mbps. Said to be extremely easy to deploy and manage, DragonWave products come with a full suite of network management options, and can be engineered to provide 99.999% service availability.
The deployment expands DragonWave's growing market presence in Europe. "Operators in more and more markets are validating our IP backhaul solutions as the state-of-the-art, high-capacity transport option for 3G and 4G base stations," said Peter Allen, president and CEO of DragonWave. "We will continue to work closely with Altitude to assist in its expansion plans in France and with WiMAX operators throughout Europe and other international markets."