AMA Wireless - Texas, USA

Broadband Wireless Access: Solutions for Regional ISPs

About AMA Wireless

• Founded in 1995
• Privately held ISP in Amarillo, TX
• Offers Internet services as well as VPN services for corporate facility connectivity
• Over 4500 customers

The Challenge

• Find a method to deliver broadband access
• Compete with the large cable and telephone operators
• Provide excellent service and low cost to customers

The Solution

• The deployment of a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) network
• Alvarion's BreezeACCESS II - product of choice

The Result

• Achieved rapid return on investment, and has proven to be a flexible, dependable solution
• 120 BreezeACCESS II Access Units hosted on over 45 towers (base stations) with 700 wireless subscribers in the traditional 3 tier network
• Present in over 40 major urban areas
• Growing by over 100 new wireless subscribers per month

AMA Wireless is an ISP operating in Amarillo, Texas, and has been providing Internet services including access, e-mail and web hosting since 1995.

AMA Wireless is a privately held ISP that has grown to serve over 4500 customers in the Amarillo, Texas area. Offering traditional Internet services including access, e-mail, and web hosting, AMA Wireless also offers VPN services for corporate facility connectivity, either directly or via the Internet. This allows them to offer a cost effective leased line replacement. These services are offered to customers over dial-up, DSL, ISDN, and wireless technologies.

Like many regional service providers, AMA Wireless recognized the key to achieving its current and future business plans is the ability to offer broadband services. If regional ISPs are to survive, they must find a method to deliver broadband access that is competitive with the large cable and telephone operators. To ensure it achieved its business objectives and growth, AMA Wireless was determined to uphold its corporate values of excellent service at low cost. The solution to meet all these needs was in Broadband Wireless Access.

The Alvarion Solution -BreezeACCESS

BreezeACCESS Broadband Wireless Access solutions address the demand for Always On high-speed data and voice services across a wireless infrastructure. BreezeACCESS is the ideal infrastructure solution, providing immediate deployment and low entry costs and demand-based build-out. This allows services to be offered to all customer types including large business, small business, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and residential. The decision to use the BreezeACCESS family of products provided the opportunity to replace the current DSL while attracting new customers with wireless service.

The frequency hopping technology by Alvarion has historically been a proven solution due to the extremely low number of outages or customer complaints. The robust and dependable BWA technology provided by Alvarion has proven superior. This includes reliable operation in areas with known interference from 802.11b equipment - Alvarion's BWA equipment continued to work when 802.11b quit. The wide range of services provided by the BreezeACCESS solution enables ISPs to go the extra mile in providing a range of services beyond simple Internet access. Some of these features include Multi-megabit per second Data Rates, Virtual Private Networks, Protocol Filtering, Security, and a wide range of subscriber unit options for various types of installations.

BreezeACCESS is the ideal solution for Internet Service Providers due to the minimal up-front investment while allowing for the deployment of a complete, instant wireless infrastructure. Bypassing the local network and without the need to lease or lay cables, BreezeACCESS enables ISPs to offer enhanced service packages while reaching new subscribers to broaden the last mile.