Aiirmesh Announces Wireless Broadband Pilot With City of Los Angeles

Aiirmesh Communications announced that it will start work this month to provide a six-month, wireless broadband pilot in the Marvin Braude Center, a multi-agency, state-of-the-art facility in Van Nuys, according to Aiirmesh Communications Chairman, Tony Esfandiari. Aiirmesh will be at CTIA next week in San Francisco taking interviews about this announcement.

The goal of the project is to help the City of Los Angeles to better understand Wi-Fi, how it can increase productivity and to analyze the benefits of Internet availability for the public, both inside buildings and in outside common areas. The City of Los Angeles has stated that it is contemplating a larger-scale deployment to additional government campuses and other underserved areas in the city.

"As a technological leader, Los Angeles should be on the forefront of providing Wi-Fi Internet access," said Council member Jack Weiss who authored the proposal for the pilot project. "I am hopeful that residents and businesses will benefit from this pilot project at the Marvin Braude Constituent Services Center, and I appreciate the partnership of Aiirmesh in this effort."

Council member Tony Cardenas added, "We welcome progressive businesses like Aiirmesh Communications at the Marvin Braude Center. Marvin Braude is becoming the state-of-the-art central facility of the Valley where city leaders bridge the gap with their constituents and Aiirmesh certainly fits that framework."

The Aiirmesh Wireless Community Broadband™ service targets three-to-30 mile "hot zones" in which subscribers can have roaming access to wireless broadband. Aiirmesh Communications has targeted a number of cities, towns and districts which currently lack the proper infrastructure for either DSL or cable modem service, and it is working closely with the Rural Broadband Coalition (RBC) to identify the broadband needs of Rural America, which encompasses 75 percent of the land mass of the nation and 25 percent of the population, yet has virtually no broadband penetration.

"We're very excited to be working with the City of Los Angles for our next deployment and at the same time, provide them with information about the value of mesh technology," notes Tony Esfandiari, Chairman of Aiirmesh. "The Valley is a very important part of Los Angles County and we're happy to make sure this campus and surrounding area, which houses key city facilities, is completely connected."

Aiirmesh's first deployment constituted the world's largest hot zone in the 8.6 square miles of Cerritos, California, a suburban community of more than 50,000 people that, like many areas in the US, does not have citywide access for DSL or cable modem broadband. The Aiirmesh broadband Internet service is being marketed to residents and businesses in Cerritos as a high-speed alternative to dial-up Internet, with the added advantage of being thoroughly wireless and available in all outdoor areas throughout the city. Pricing for the service will be comparable to wireline broadband access alternatives with a variety of service plans. Aiirmesh is marketing the service to Cerritos residents via a number of local partners. The City of Cerritos itself is one of Aiirmesh's largest customers, using the service to provide wireless broadband access to city workers and available for a variety of public safety initiatives.

The Marvin Braude San Fernando Valley Constituent Service Center is a 142,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style building that consolidates city offices previously dispersed throughout the Valley into one centralized location. The center houses field representatives from several city departments, including the Mayor's Office, City Councilmembers, City Clerk, City Attorney, Building and Safety and its One Stop Permit Center, Bureau of Engineering, Bureau of Street Services, Public Works Department's Bureau of Contract Administration and the Fire Department's Bureau of Fire Protection.

By Robert Hoskins