CBNL honoured at the European Broadband Awards 2017
CBNL, the market leader in licensed point-to-multipoint (PMP) microwave and millimeter wave, was this week awarded a finalist position in the European Broadband Awards 2017 for a ground-breaking 26GHz smart city project.
The awards are an annual event where the European Commission recognizes the outstanding EU-funded broadband deployment projects in Europe.
Together with its project partners, CBNL was recognized in the ‘Cost reduction and co-investment in a future proof infrastructure’ category for the Metropolitan Telecommunication Network (MTN) in Rzeszów.
Delivered in collaboration with the City of Rzeszów and VSAT System sj, a leading system integrator, the MTN is one of the most innovative municipal networks in Europe, and a blueprint for leveraging 5G spectrum.
CBNL’s VectaStar PMP solution was used to deliver the network, showcasing how the latest millimetre wave technology can provide a highly cost effective route to ubiquitous urban connectivity.
Through high levels of spectrum reuse and virtualization techniques, the project has delivered wide-ranging benefits across the city.
The results speak for themselves: over 500 Wi-Fi hot spots offer broadband to under-served homes and economic areas, 187 schools and city buildings have superfast broadband of up to 200Mbps, whilst over 650 fixed and 400 pan-tilt-zoom CCTV and automatic number plate recognition cameras monitor public safety and traffic. Connectivity for an Intelligent Transport System has reduced travel time by up to 6 minutes on some of the city’s busiest roads, with road capacity increasing by up to 40%.
These benefits were delivered at the same time as reducing the City’s annual telecommunication costs by 60%.
Lionel Chmilewsky, CEO at CBNL commented:
“CBNL is delighted to receive such a prestigious award from the European Commission, which recognizes our smart city network as one of the leading broadband deployments in Europe over the last year.
“Rzeszów’s smart city network demonstrates pioneering use of 26GHz and showcases how the latest millimetre wave technology can provide a highly cost effective route to ubiquitous urban connectivity.
"The network is a great use case of 5G spectrum and CBNL’s licensed PMP technology, which will bring long-lasting socioeconomic benefits to the city and wider region.
“I thank the European Commission for their support of this project and the many other initiatives they are developing to accelerate faster broadband in cities and regions across Europe.”
The success of CBNL’s project was also recognized earlier this month when it won ‘Best Digital Transformation Project’ at the Global Telecoms Awards 2017, beating strong competition from across the industry.
To find out more about the project, a video case study can be viewed here.