With SA, and for that matter Africa, following a global trend in the increasing demand for hotspots, EMW South Africa has secured the African distribution for one of the WiFi market`s leading product ranges from US-based company Colubris Networks.
Colubris Networks is a global provider of MultiService Wireless LAN (WLAN) systems for enterprises and service providers, delivering highly scalable, flexible solutions for wireless voice, data and video networking.
Colubris solutions make it easy and affordable for organisations to give their employees, guests, customers, suppliers and partners mobile access to network services.
Colubris offers the world`s first Intelligent MultiService System - a scalable, open and cost-effective system that enables enterprises and service providers to deliver multiple, converged business services and applications to the wireless edge. By combining centralised management and control with distributed intelligence at the edge, Colubris solutions make it easy for organisations to deploy intelligent, scalable systems, individually optimised for security, reliability and application performance.
"We believe the Colubris product suite offers market leading functionality at an affordable price," says Stuart Harrison, Pre-Sales Technical Manager for EMW South Africa. "We searched long and hard for a WiFi product that would offer our clients the best possible functionality, scalability and security in one combined WiFi product. We believe we have found exactly that with the Colubris range of products and are extremely optimistic about the product`s future in the local market."
Founded in 2000 and privately-owned, Colubris gained early recognition as a wireless LAN leader with a series of breakthrough products, including the first plug-and-play "hotspot in a box", the first access point with VPN security, and the first virtualised multiservice WLAN access system. Today, more than 1 000 customers worldwide rely on Colubris` award-winning solutions, among them the world`s most demanding wireline and wireless carriers, and leading enterprises and institutions in the hospitality, retail, education and healthcare markets.
"Colubris offers products that are very well suited to the African environment where we have some pretty extreme environmental conditions as well as large geographical distances to cover between locations needing connectivity," says Harrison.
Colubris offers a wide range of "extended" WiFi services such as voice over WLAN service: Featuring Colubris Service-Aware QoS, this service offers secure, high-quality voice communications via virtually any VoWLAN phone. It provides fast subnet roaming without any special client software, and supports the Wireless MultiMedia (WMM) and Spectralink Voice Priority (SVP) protocol.
From an interoperability perspective, Harrison states: "We`ve found significant benefits with the Colubris equipment being able to transparently integrate info other third-party WiFi services, such as the WiFicom SAB Billing Server, thus enabling a WSP to offer its clients an extremely easy to use, configuration-free, wireless Internet access."
With Colubris having been employed by companies like Boeing to power its Connexion broadband in-flight Internet service, the Colubris CN3300 WLAN Service Controller and CN330 Access Device boast the industry`s first use of two 802.11 radios able to simultaneously broadcast on today`s popular 2.4GHz 802.11g band, as well as 5GHz 802.11a from a single box. Offering the ability of dual radios to cover both wireless spectrums provides a hedge against future technology shifts, as well as increasing performance, according to Colubris.
While 802.11g is the current WiFi standard everyone is requesting, future needs cannot be predicted and it looks like Colubris is firmly on the road to catering for the future growth and development of WiFi technology.
EMW South Africa is a subsidiary of US-based EMW Inc. EMW South Africa specialises in the import and distribution of niche market products for the IT sector and is in the process of recruiting local South African VARs to drive the Colubris presence in the local market.
For further product or reseller information, please contact EMW via e-mail on colubris@emwza.com
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