Bluwan’s Revolutionary Fibre through the Air Technology to Transform Mobile Backhaul and Broadband Solutions Space The 2011 Frost & Sullivan European Technology Innovation Award in Mobile Backhaul and Broadband Solutions is presented to Bluwan.
May 19th, 2011 London, UK: “Bluwan’s Fibre through the Air (FTTA) technology is a high-speed, high-capacity, point-to-multi-point wireless solution which allows service providers to increase existing network capacity in the 42 GHz and 12GHz spectrums and deploy ultra wide band access or backhaul solutions at a fraction of the cost of deploying optical fibre in remote areas where it is difficult to deploy wireline or fibre networks,” explains Frost & Sullivan Research Manager Vedavalli Rangan.
Bluwan’s FTTA residential and enterprise access solutions are highly scalable, enabling service providers to easily expand their range of services and coverage area. It thereby also supports the acquisition of more customers and the increase of total average revenue per user (ARPU), while remaining in control of margins.
Bluwan’s FTTA is geometrically more cost efficient than traditional point to point (PTP) links due to single ended installations, less equipment required, very compact equipment, and the ability to backhaul a cluster of base stations from a single radio antenna. FTTA technology enables Bluwan to deploy fully functional pilots in a span of a few months, empowering service providers with the speed of fibre technology as well as reduced timeline involved with wireless network set-up.
“Compared to existing point-to-point 42 GHz solutions, Bluwan’s FTTA offers more throughput, for a wider coverage area, using time division duplex (TDD) architecture to allow service providers to easily configure their download and upload throughput,” remarks Rangan. “In comparison to other point to multipoint (PTMP) microwave solutions, Bluwan typically offers nearly 20 times more throughput for a longer range, with carrier grade availability.”
The FTTA architecture is easily extendable using relay nodes and harnesses the cost-effective large contiguous spectrum blocks available at higher frequencies such as 12 GHz and 42 GHz. Mobile network operators as well as fixed or convergent service providers using FTTA can offer triple or quadruple play services with fibre like capacity with a much faster route to market, at a fraction of the cost of fibre deployments.
Bluwan’s FTTA mobile backhaul and broadband access solutions are viable complements that can help service providers optimise their network build to meet customer demands for super fast broadband in slow-spot or no-spot areas. Wireless backhaul solutions operating in the 42 GHz spectrum (40.5 – 43.5 GHz) have technological and economic advantages, such as significant bandwidth availability, resulting in massive amounts of capacity.
“Bluwan’s access architecture can be configured to meet a service provider’s desired coverage maps and required capacity,” states Rangan. “The company’s ‘pay-as-you-grow business model minimises initial CAPEX and recurring OPEX budget spend, leading to a much faster ROI than traditional fibre to the home (FTTH) deployments. The FTTA based equipments’ small form factor and the advantage of PTMP reduce CAPEX and OPEX significantly.”
Shayan Sanyal, Chief Marketing Officer at Bluwan, said: “For Bluwan this award and our recent launch are the culmination of years of hard work by our team to bring this technology to fruition. We hope that this recognition from Frost and Sullivan will help more people become aware of Bluwan and our aim to ensure that high-quality superfast mobile and fixed broadband, important for business and community growth, is available to all.”
Moreover, Bluwan’s FTTA technology is unique in that its electro-magnetic radiation properties are one of the lowest in the industry. In addition, the company’s customer outdoor equipment is only 18 cm in diameter and minimises rural visual pollution while its compact 1W, 1 GHz radios also reduce energy consumption.
The Technology Innovation Award is presented to the company that has excelled in the following criteria: uniqueness of technology, impact on new products/applications, impact on functionality, impact on customer value and relevance of innovation to industry.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.
About Bluwan
Established in 2005, Bluwan was co-founded by François Magne, Pierre Lagoutte and the Thales Group, a world leader in mission-critical information systems for defence and security, aerospace and transportation. A privately owned company, Bluwan’s solutions are the culmination of several years of research and development.
Bluwan delivers a paradigm shift by providing carrier-grade multi-gigabit wireless solutions with fibre-like speeds and capacity, allowing service providers to increase existing network capacity (42 GHz and 12GHz spectrums) and deploy multimedia services at a fraction of the cost of deploying optical fibre in those hard to reach areas.
Bluwan’s FTTA technology has two main applications: mobile backhaul and high-speed broadband access.
Bluwan has deployed several pilots in France and in Europe, and has been awarded sizeable subsidies in government sponsored competitive programs, to develop very compact radios and antennas for CEPT 12 GHz and 42 GHz radio frequencies.
About Frost & Sullivan
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