BT Partners With Motorola For Wireless City Initiatives

BT has selected Motorola, Inc to provide mesh Wi-Fi network infrastructure and services for six of BT’s Wireless City initiatives in the UK.

Under the terms of the agreement, Motorola will design, deploy and manage city-wide Wi-Fi networks with BT in cities such as Birmingham and Newcastle.

The Mesh Wi-Fi networks will deliver wireless broadband for use by public services, businesses and citizens in each of the cities. BT Openzone hotspots will be extended to enable wireless web access and email.

Contiguous Wi-Fi coverage will be provided to enable real time applications using for example, BT Fusion dual mode devices. Virtual private network (VPN) services will be provided for enterprise customers. These will also e-enable local authority workforces. Wireless closed circuit television (CCTV) will be provided to aid community safety and security.

Motorola will supply solutions from its MOTOwi4 wireless broadband portfolio. The solutions will be deployed across the cities on existing sites such as lampposts. The Motorola solution allows data to be backhauled wirelessly.

This saves the cost, time and disruption involved with building a fixed network. The networks will be Mesh-enabled, making them secure and robust and allowing the network to “self heal” should individual access points fail by rerouting traffic.