Widely recognized for its rich history of railroading and industry, Reading is a vibrant city, with a symphony orchestra, a civic opera company, colleges, hospitals and more. To accommodate fast-paced growth, a new public works facility was built in 2004. As construction neared completion, officials recognized the need for a reliable way to extend the city network to the new building, located approximately a half-mile from city hall.
An important factor in the city's search for a connectivity solution was the requirement for a highly secure system that would preserve the integrity of sensitive information. City officials contemplated using T-3 lines, but found the bandwidth to be inadequate and monthly leasing costs exorbitantly expensive. Fiber-optic cable was also considered, but installation would involve deep trenching under railroad tracks in an established urban setting.
The city's IT team worked with Integral Wireless, Inc., a Reading-based reseller, and ultimately deployed a LightPointe FlightStrata featuring full-duplex throughput of up to 1.25 Gbps.
The solution also supports a disaster recovery plan to transport nightly backups of up to one terabyte of data to the new facility.
