A northeastern city had developed an initiative to provide free, public WiFi in a downtown, outdoor area. The city had invested a great deal of money into revitalizing the area, and improving the wireless infrastructure was part of the mayor’s vision for creating a 21st century, connected city that would attract tech-savvy young professionals and leading conferences to the area. Municipal wireless would also add value for residents of the city, particularly lower-income residents who lacked access to internet in their homes.
The investment in wireless would be funded by one of the city’s corporate sponsors, a large bank with deep roots in the area. The bank’s IT department had done a great deal of consultative work for the city over the years, as the city’s internal IT staff was lean and lacked the technical networking expertise required to handle complex initiatives like the upcoming wireless project. While the bank’s IT staff could continue to play a consultative role for the initiative, it did not have the time or resources necessary to take on a project of this magnitude on the city’s behalf. The city also lacked the means to manage the wireless solution post-implementation, so it needed a partner with the proper qualifications to provide comprehensive managed services for the municipal network.
The Challenges of an Outdoor Wireless Implementation
The bank had a long-term working relationship with ConvergeOne. Knowing that ConvergeOne possessed the experience and expertise required to handle the project’s complicated design, implementation, and management, the bank introduced ConvergeOne into the discussion with the city’s IT department. ConvergeOne immediately went to work laying out the project’s complicated networking requirements. The implementation of wireless would prove challenging because the access points had to be in an open area along five miles of waterfront. Further complicating matters, the area was notorious for its volatile weather. Because the wireless would be available for widespread use in a very public area, it would need to support any user who wanted to join on the device of their choice.
READ THE USE CASE
Read the use case to discover how ConvergeOne helped the city use innovative technology to improve its infrastructure and surrounding areas.
Topics: Enterprise Networking, Wireless
