Aperto Goes to Luau in Maui

HIHEI, Hawaii and MILPITAS, Calif. -- Maui Sky Fiber, the leading wireless access provider to consumers and visiting tourists on Maui, is launching business-grade wireless connectivity on the island and has deployed Aperto Networks as its exclusive provider for 2.5 GHz point-to-point and point-to-multipoint systems supporting wireless business access and backhaul infrastructure for Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) for portable wireless access.

"Our success in meeting consumer and portable wireless access demand created an ideal opportunity to take the Maui Sky Fiber model to the next level," stated Chuck Bergson, company CEO. "We already have at least 5Mbps continuous backhaul traffic from our residential users and hotspots. Since we look to double our subscriber base this year, traffic will continue to grow rapidly. We were ready for the highly scalable wireless backhaul infrastructure Aperto's PacketWave provided between our major nodes."

"In addition," he continued, "Maui enterprises, higher education, health care facilities and county agencies have been pushing hard for business-grade connectivity - they can't get DSL, cable's upstream delivery and reach limits are too low, and T-1 is too costly. Wireless T-1 is a perfect fit for their needs, and it creates higher ARPU opportunities for us. Aperto's systems were the only ones to meet the high reliability and functional requirements for this service."

Maui Sky Fiber has now deployed 500 kbps to 10 Mbps business grade wireless Internet access to the heart of Maui's county seat of government in Wailuku, also including the main commercial centers of Kahului. The company is also expanding its footprint to businesses and public agencies from Wailea in the south to Paia on the north shore. Additionally, Maui Sky Fiber will soon deploy to the island's eastern Upcountry communities, all from a Packetwave base station atop Maui's 10,000-foot Mount Haleakala.

"We are leveraging Aperto's flexible and highly-reliable 802.16-class wireless systems to support high speed access as well as a range of critical applications," emphasized Maui Sky Fiber CTO Greg Bardos. "For example, our team is working with the University of Hawaii and local hospitals to deliver high-resolution telemedicine. We support streaming audio for radio programming, and plan to offer VoIP to locations that are not served by any connectivity today, such as temporary construction sites or those in very rugged terrain."

Bardos continued, "What we like best about Aperto's systems is that they are highly reliable, and they include integrated routing and NAT features that make them fully Ethernet-ready. This means no-hassle installation for business users, because no specialized software is required at the PC. The subscriber unit functions like a combined router and DHCP server for the LAN, and installs very rapidly."

"Maui Sky Fiber is expanding its successful business model to now include business-grade multiservice wireless and UMTS backhaul," stated Aperto Networks CEO Dr. Reza Ahy. "Our scalable, IP-rich feature sets, leadership in 802.16 standards and QoS delivery suit their needs perfectly, and complement their existing wireless deployments. We look forward to working with Maui Sky Fiber to create a converged wireless network."

Aperto Networks