The initiative was announced by Governor Bill Richardson in 2005 and will allow for ubiquitous and cost-effective state-of-the-art connectivity among state agencies in order to better serve the citizens of New Mexico. The project is being overseen and the network designed and installed by Access Technology, a wireless systems integrator and Proxim Wireless Platinum Partner.
In area, New Mexico is the fifth-largest state in the United States, with a rugged landscape ranging from desert to mountains. This terrain makes the deployment of a traditional telecommunications infrastructure challenging and the costs for wired broadband access services is correspondingly high.
According to Marc Tapia, telecommunications engineer for the State of New Mexico, "Leasing T1 circuits to support rural New Mexico is cost prohibitive, so we opted to deploy broadband wireless technologies state-wide. We turned to Proxim Wireless and Access Technology and they are delivering everything we need to drive the wireless initiative to completion."
A common configuration is the distribution of bandwidth from Proxim's Tsunami GX.32 point-to-point link in a city to a Tsunami MP.11 point-to-multipoint system, to municipal facilities including public safety, magistrate courts, departments of labor and transportation, corrections department, state land offices, health and human services and motor vehicle departments. This configuration has been deployed in 12 cities in New Mexico to date, connecting as many as 20 facilities in one city. The cities now pay a fraction of the previous cost of a T1 circuit for 20x more bandwidth and the capability to support advanced applications such as telemedicine, video arraignment, and distance learning.
"The State of New Mexico is committed to providing its departments and its citizens with state-of-the-art communications services via broadband wireless technologies," said Tapia. "Proxim Wireless and Access Technology have delivered a robust network solution that makes the high price of wireline circuits history. Now our state and local governments are able to offer advanced services to their constituents."
"New Mexico's initiative should have tremendous socio-economic impact on the state and should serve as a model for other local and state governments to follow," said Geoff Smith, vice president, worldwide marketing, Proxim Wireless.
Proxim Tsunami MP.16 base stations and subscriber units were also recently chosen to support a special WiMAX deployment in Parintins, Brazil, as part of the Intel World Ahead Program. In this initiative, Intel plans to invest more than US $1 billion globally over the next five years to bring wireless voice and data to residents of developing nations.
Parintins, a town on an island in the Amazon River reachable only by boat or plane, is home to 114,000 residents. In partnership with Intel, Proxim Wireless and other collaborators installed a state-of-the-art WiMAX network connecting a primary healthcare center, two public schools, a community center, and Amazon University.
