Press Releases
Sky Catcher Communications Partners with SkyPilot to Deliver Mesh Networks for Rural Broadband Access
Service provider delivers high speed Internet access, e-mail, voice, and Video surveillance services to underserved markets
Santa Clara, CA and Rutherfordton, NC - March 29, 2007 - SkyPilot Networks, the leading provider of carrier-class broadband wireless mesh networks, today announced a partnership with Sky Catcher Communications, a North Carolina-based systems integrator and service provider for rural markets in the Americas, using its mesh products as the wireless infrastructure and access for Sky Catcher's network services.
Sky Catcher's Dirt Road High Speed® wireless broadband services enable rural towns, private communities, real estate developers, schools, colleges, and private enterprises to set up their own revenue generating operations that offer DSL class broadband and voice over IP (VoIP) services. The company's SkyVoice® service provides full featured VoIP solutions with options for conference bridges, remote management, and software to enable phone extension access to or from a computer.
"SkyPilot's wireless mesh network play a key role in providing full coverage of our Dirt Road High Speed® services in remote towns and other out-of-the-way places," said Don Thompson, CEO of Sky Catcher Communications. "While it's fairly straightforward to bring service to a single location, distributing the connection to multiple buildings, streets, and homes from a single point is more of a challenge. With a mesh network, we eliminate all the wires because it does not rely on line-of-sight for all connections, and it can easily work around obstacles. SkyPilot's mesh networks include automatic node discovery and links formation making installation extremely fast and very reliable."
In order to deliver a wireless network with the performance, coverage and security that the public and a growing city desire, SkyPilot has worked closely with Sky Catcher Communications. SkyPilot's state-of-the-art mesh architecture allows Sky Catcher to deliver on the promise of providing its rural residents with affordable broadband service while undertaking unique and cost-effective applications that are valuable to its customers.
"Sky Catcher Communications has designed, deployed, and delivered high performance networks and Internet access to areas with little or no service from the mainstream carriers and ISPs," said Brian Jenkins, vice president of product management at SkyPilot. "In rural areas it is economically unfeasible to lay fiber or cable, so historically these locations were highly underserved. However, with Sky Catcher's turn-key solutions and SkyPilot's mesh networks, any rural town can now have quality, high-speed services without the complications of location or distance. And there is no need to build a wired network infrastructure inside towns and neighborhoods since the wireless mesh nodes can deliver connectivity to any building without wires."
The Sky Catcher and SkyPilot solutions are available in a variety of configurations of backhaul frequencies in the 5.8 GHz spectrum and access in 2.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz spectrum. These solutions are used primarily for permanent fixed wireless installations in rural areas.
About Sky Catcher Communications
Sky Catcher Communications is a market leader in providing high quality, broadband satellite services to rural enterprise customers and government agencies. The company was formed in October of 2004 to provide a national communications solution to empower rural areas to become both economically and technically competitive in today's enterprise market place. This meant not only providing a very competitive price with robust bandwidth to the end user, but also providing peripheral equipment and services for VoIP, wireless networking, and the ability to provide quality streaming video. For more information, visit www.skycatcher.com.
Press Contact:
Dawn Jones
Sky Catcher Communications
dawn.jones@skycatcher.com
+1 828-288-8899 Ext. 10
About SkyPilot Networks
SkyPilot Networks is the leading provider of carrier-class wireless mesh solutions that enable service providers, municipalities, and public safety agencies to rapidly deploy cost-effective broadband access, voice over IP, public and private Wi-Fi access, video surveillance, and other wireless applications. The SkyPilot solution utilizes a patent-pending synchronous mesh architecture with high-speed switched directional antenna arrays that extends reach, mitigates interference, and maximizes spectral reuse. The result is a highly scalable, reliable, and deterministic mesh network that simplifies design, increases deployment flexibility, and dramatically reduces equipment and operating costs. SkyPilot has proven scalability and reliability with over 300 customers in more than 50 countries. SkyPilot is a privately held company based in Santa Clara, California. For more information on SkyPilot and its solutions, contact pr@skypilot.com or
visit http://www.skypilot.com.
