AccessNET - Romania

Bandwidth-Mania in Romania:Meeting the Demands of a Growing Market

About AccessNET

• Romanian Wireless Access Provider, founded in December 2000
• Provider of enhanced data services, Internet access, VPN & VLAN solutions
• Services sold directly and through deep reseller channels

The Challenge

• The inherent limitations of Romania’s Telco infrastructure
• Providing cost-effective data, voice & high-speed Internet services over a broadband-enabled infrastructure
• Achieve market penetration with low entry cost, quick ROI
• Effectively compete with the major voice and data providers in Romania

The Solution

• The deployment of a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) network
• Alvarion’s BreezeACCESS for 3.5 GHz band - product of choice

The Result

• Operational within six months of their founding
• Connected first customers within one month of going operational on the market
• Present in over 40 major urban areas
• Offer 100% coverage in Bucharest, Romania’s capital
• Agip, Bosch, Minolta, Whirpool and Lukoil among their high-profile business customers

In recent years, the trend towards deregulation of the world’s telecom markets has made significant inroads into Central and Eastern Europe.

Telecom liberalization is part of the business development in the region, driving the modernization of one of the most essential infrastructures for building a revamped economy. Romania is a case in point. Despite slow economic growth, the demand for bandwidth-intensive services is on a steady growth curve, reflecting the evolving diversity of its business community in their quest to compete in the global marketplace. Founded in December 2000, AccessNET is one of Romania’s emerging telecommunications ventures, targeting a wide variety of business segments. The national carrier provides fast, reliable and secure fixed wireless access services to its customer base, both directly and by way of resellers. Through its 3.5GHz licensed Point-to-Multipoint wireless network, AccessNET provides connectivity services for the local loop to enterprises, ISPs, carriers and IT&C services integrators. Employing a business plan predicated upon the BWA model from the onset, the access provider bypasses the local networks in the markets it serves without the need to lease or lay cables. AccessNET’s diverse palette of access services enables its customers to bridge and broaden the last mile in Romania.

BreezeACCESS:Driving Romania ’s AccessNET to Profitability With its professional reputation for closely collaborating with carriers and service providers in building profitable broadband-enabled wireless networks, Alvarion became AccessNET’s natural partner of choice when the wireless access provider received its license to operate in the 3.5GHz frequency band in May 2001.

Alvarion’s BreezeACCESS system provides the Romanian service provider with the benefits of “plug & play” subscriber installation, swift and scalable pay-as-you-grow network deployment, and an immediate return on investment.

BreezeACCESS presents a compelling business case for emergent ISPs seeking to enter a wide-open service arena in markets devoid of an infrastructure suitable for broadband delivery. The solution enables AccessNET to deliver highly affordable, broadband wireless services that go beyond simple Internet access, including VPN (Virtual Private Networks), VLAN (Virtual LAN), VoIP telephony and video conferencing. Employing packet-switching technology, BreezeACCESS delivers always-on connectivity with dynamic bandwidth on demand, making it ideal for unpredictable Internet traffic.

The BreezeACCESS network presents a lucrative business opportunity for the Romanian wireless access provider to deploy a nationwide, independent broadband network capable of serving a variety of urban and rural last-mile segments without having to rely upon the country’s inadequate, wireline legacy infrastructure. AccessNET was able to connect its first customers within one month of being awarded its license and has since acquired many high-profile business customers, such as Agip, Bosch, Minolta, Whirpool and Lukoil. In less than a year, the connectivity provider has connected customers in over 40 major cities throughout Romania, and offers 100% service coverage to the nation’s busy capital, Bucharest, whose demanding needs are served efficiently and cost-effectively through only six deployed Alvarion base stations. Future BreezeACCESS-based networks are slated for deployment in additional cities.

“Offering sophisticated, last-mile access services to business customers nationwide is a difficult challenge in a country like Romania. Our country’s legacy Telco infrastructure is really incapable of handling the bandwidth-heavy demands of our customer base. Deploying a fixed wireless access network using Alvarion’s BrezeeACCESS equipment has given us a strong technological foothold and a cost-effective business case for building a lucrative enterprise”