Vivato, Lexington WiFi and ICOA Bring Wi-Fi to the Heart of Kentucky's Horse Country
May 03 2005 - 4:59PM
PR Newswire (US)
Vivato, Lexington WiFi and ICOA Bring Wi-Fi to the Heart of
Kentucky's Horse Country Project to Eventually Cover Most of
Fayette County SPOKANE, Wash., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivato, a
leading provider of extended-range Wi-Fi equipment, ICOA, Inc.
(OTC:ICOA) (BULLETIN BOARD: ICOA) , a provider of wireless
broadband Internet networks, and Lexington WiFi, Inc., a wireless
Internet Services Provider (WISP), have teamed up to bring wireless
connectivity to Lexington, Kentucky. With the recent installation
of two new Vivato outdoor base stations atop an office building --
for a total of three -- the partnership covers more than 18 square
miles outside the downtown core, including businesses, residential
neighborhoods and apartment complexes. "Lexington and the famous
Bluegrass region of surrounding Fayette County are the newest
showcases of Vivato's ability to greatly increase the range and
coverage of Wi-Fi systems," said Glenn Booth, director of
marketing, Vivato. "With the new installation in Lexington, we have
expanded the Wi-Fi footprint in Fayette County from a little less
than three square miles to nearly 20," Booth added. "Because of the
increased range of our equipment, we can cover this large area with
only three base stations and a few microcell Access Points (AP)
compared with the more than 60 APs required by competing systems.
We are looking forward to working with our partners to extend
coverage to 90 per cent of the county." Booth said Kentucky is
becoming one of Vivato's key markets because of the growth of the
Lexington installation and the Kentucky Governor's plans to extend
Wi-Fi throughout the state. Gov. Ernie Fletcher recently named
Vivato as one of the companies joining the ConnectKentucky
partnership, an alliance supporting the Governor's plan to provide
broadband connectivity to all of Kentucky by 2007. "We are proud
and excited to be in Lexington and look forward to working with the
Governor's ConnectKentucky endeavor to bring the Vivato solution to
the rest of the state," Booth said. Mark Sievers, president of
Lexington WiFi, said the recently-completed deployment site is one
of 10 sites Lexington WiFi plans to install throughout the county.
The total installation would involve 30-32 Vivato VP 2210 base
stations and accompanying microcell APs, Sievers noted. The
Lexington WiFi network can be accessed by using desktop or laptop
computers or other wireless devices such as PDAs equipped to
connect via 802.11 (version 'b' or 'g') standards. The initial
market segment targeted by Lexington WiFi is residential, including
house and apartment dwellers in the Beaumont Center area. The
Vivato approach to Wi-Fi differs by utilizing phased array antennas
and a patented signal steering technology to provide up to 12 times
the coverage of typical access points. "A typical mesh network
requires 12-16 access points per square mile," said Chuck Williams,
chief engineer, Lexington WiFi. "With Vivato, you get two to three
square miles of coverage per base station. It just makes sense to
use Vivato from an economic, as well as operational, perspective."
ICOA, a national provider of wireless broadband Internet networks
and managed services in high-traffic public locations, provides
turn-key services including OSS, testing, billing and credit card
authorization, as well as customer care, to Lexington WiFi. "We are
pleased to be working with partners Vivato and Lexington WiFi in
this exciting Wi-Fi project," said Rich Schiffmann, CEO. "ICOA's
full suite of solutions can manage all aspects of the growing
metrozone market, including design, deployment, management,
maintenance and customer care and we are looking forward to
extending these services as the Lexington system grows to cover
more and more of Fayette County." About Vivato A scalable, extended
range Wi-Fi systems infrastructure company, Vivato utilizes an
innovative signal processing and antenna design that offers
dramatic improvements in Wi-Fi range and coverage. Vivato's unique
system architecture enables cost-effective, large-scale indoor and
outdoor wireless deployments at hotels, airports, seaports,
warehouses, universities, and enterprises, and in cities and towns.
Vivato is headquartered in Spokane, Washington. For more
information, please visit http://www.vivato.com/ or call
509-343-6001. About ICOA, Inc. ICOA, Inc. is a leading provider of
neutral-host wireless and wired broadband Internet networks in
high-traffic public locations. ICOA provides design, installation,
operations, maintenance and management of neutral, common-use
802.11x standard WLAN Wi-Fi hot spot and hot zone infrastructure
throughout airport facilities, quick-service restaurants, marinas,
hospitality and hot zone locations. ICOA currently owns or operates
over 1,050 broadband access installations in high-traffic locations
across 44 states. For additional information, visit
http://www.icoacorp.com/ . About Lexington WiFi, Inc. Lexington
WiFi, Inc. is central-Kentucky-based start-up Wi-Fi technology
company that offers extended-range wireless internet service in its
deployment area. It uses cutting-edge technology from Vivato and is
privately owned. Lexington WiFi also provides Wi-Fi and other
wireless consulting and implementation services. Further
information is available at http://www.lexwifi.com/. DATASOURCE:
Vivato CONTACT: Denise Nelson of Trainer Communications,
+1-925-837-6277, or , for Vivato Web site: http://www.vivato.net/
Web site: http://www.lexwifi.com/ Web site:
http://www.icoacorp.com/
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