Telecom Selects RoamAD Wi-Fi Mesh - More Coverage

Telecom Selects RoamAD Wi-Fi Mesh for More Coverage and Features

AUCKLAND, New Zealand—December 21, 2005—Telecom New Zealand, the largest integrated telecommunications provider in New Zealand, and RoamAD, the leading supplier of carrier-grade wireless networking software for citywide Wi-Fi networks, today announced that Telecom has selected RoamAD’s platform to roll-out a campus-wide Wi-Fi mesh network at Southland Institute of Technology (SIT).

All students, faculty, and visitors to SIT will soon be able to access the Internet and roam around campus with any Wi-Fi enabled laptop, PDA or the new dual-mode Wi-Fi/3G mobile phones, thanks to Telecom’s move to cover most of the campus with a Wi-Fi mesh network.

“SIT is always looking for ways to enhance the campus for students and for its faculty staff. The new network will complement our existing technology while providing another option for how people connect to the Internet and where they work,” SIT IT Co-ordinator Paul Jennings said.

The SIT Wi-Fi mesh hotzone will form part of Telecom’s growing nationwide network of more than 250 wireless hotspots and will be created using RoamAD’s leading-edge software platform.

“After assessing the available mesh networking solutions against Telecom’s carrier-grade criteria, we settled on RoamAD’s feature rich, standards based, remotely upgradeable platform,” said Telecom WiFi Innovation Manager Kriv Naicker.

“There are a lot of mesh vendors out there and RoamAD is one of our platforms of choice as we work towards convergence. RoamAD also has a very clear WiMAX roadmap, which is also important to Telecom.”

Telecom will work with Gen-i and HP to roll-out and integrate the mesh network.

Colin Henderson, Director of HP New Zealand Communications, Media and Entertainment practice confirmed that HP was pleased to extend its partnership with Telecom in support of their mesh network initiative with RoamAD.

“This incorporates HP’s developed payment solution for WiFi networks, mesh networks and WiMAX solutions such as that to be deployed at SIT” he said.

“Convergence is on our doorstep. It is pleasing to see Telecom at the forefront of New Zealand’s mobile data market deploying campus-wide mesh networks that will complement and converge with the mobile networks,” said Martyn Levy, RoamAD’s VP Business Development.

RoamAD now has customers and networks in nine countries. The SIT mesh network is expected to be operational in early 2006.

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About Telecom

Telecom provides tailored communications solutions to business customers throughout New Zealand and Australia. With a strong history in the New Zealand market and a growing presence in Australia, Telecom provides innovative and reliable information and communications technology to enable customers to communicate when, where and how they want. For more information, visit www.telecom.co.nz.

About RoamAD

RoamAD(™) is the leading supplier of carrier grade wireless software for mobile data and mobile VoIP/VoWiFi enabled citywide Wi-Fi mesh networks, highway Wi-Fi networks, campus hotzones and wireless backhaul. RoamAD’s radio-agnostic, software-based platform can be installed on commodity hardware. The software platform is remotely upgradeable and is optimized to support mobile broadband data, video and mobile VoIP/VoWiFi. RoamAD’s roadmap includes 802.16 WiMAX and Wi-Fi/cellular integration in accordance with UMA/3GPP.

RoamAD is a trademark of RoamAD Holdings Limited. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder(s). For more information visit www.roamad.com.

About SIT

SIT is an innovative tertiary institution offering a wide range of post-graduate, degree, diploma and certificated programmes. In 2000, SIT introduced the Zero Fee Scheme which enabled NZ students to undertake its tertiary programmes without having to pay any student tuition fee at all. SIT is based in Invercargill, Southland and has campuses in Gore and Christchurch.

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