The RedKite wireless Internet access service using WiMAX technology now lets customers ‘burst’ up to 20 Mbps to cover spikes in Internet activity as long as they keep within their contracted data rates (2, 5 or 10 Mbps) for the majority of the time.
CI-Net’s MD, Graham McLean said: “Burstable RedKite gives customers extra flexibility and peace of mind. They know they are covered if they have short periods when they need a bit of extra bandwidth. This could be down to performing a big online backup for example or a sudden increase in web traffic if they host their own web site or just the odd busy period in the month when they need a slightly bigger ‘Internet pipe’.”
The RedKite service is available in a growing number of UK locations including Central London, Birmingham and Oxford. Regional base stations transmit symmetric, uncontended bandwidth for subscribers to pick up using outdoor antennas. It is often used as a low cost, alternative to private leased lines or as a failover service to support business continuity.
“In some instances, businesses choose RedKite as an additional connection alongside their traditional cable based service,” explained McLean. “Because it’s totally separate from any BT or carrier provided service, it gives them extra resilience and supports business continuity. We can set it up so a customer can make use of all the bandwidth from both the wireless and their traditional wired service and configure them to automatically failover to each other if one experiences a problem.”
RedKite is being rolled out to cities, town centres and business parks around the UK based on demand.