WHY WIRELESS?

Wireless is low cost, quick to deploy, and flexible. The North Florida Broadband Authority has chosen to deploy a wireless Middle Mile network for these very reasons. The low cost factor serves areas that would otherwise remain unserved. Without the rapid deployment and coverage of hundreds of miles at a time, some locations would not see broadband for years. Without the flexibility of wireless we would not be able to provide connections to both Last Mile providers and critical public services.

Key advantages include:

• Wireless delivers fiber-like reliability at lower cost and deployment times. Fiber networks can range between $200,000 and $800,000 per mile and can take several years to deploy. A wireless Middle 
  Mile solution costs between $50,000 and $90,000 per link (5-15 miles), delivers speeds of 100 Mbps, and can be deployed in just a few months.
• Wireless IP networks allow tremendous configuration flexibility, and they can be modified and expanded at very low cost. Wide spectrum availability and extremely high capacity, provide numerous options for all types of users and applications using broadband connectivity to serve public safety, education, power management, and emergency services.
• Wireless is a proven technology with years of 99.999% availability running the most critical customer applications.
• Wireless networks are not subject to backhoe fades and other failure scenarios; wireless transport solutions often exhibit superior uptime when compared to fiber.
• Point to Consecutive Point and Ring architectures are scalable and redundant Ñ automatically re-routing traffic around failures and avoiding high traffic routes. This type of network arrangement also allows multiple connections to the Internet backbone (and backbone providers) for delivering traffic on and off the network.