[LINK] Internode covers Coorong

[David Boxall]

There are advantages to a wide (flat) brown land, it seems.

<http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=37520&eid=3&edate=20060927>
Internode covers Coorong
By Lilia Guan, CRN      27 September 2006 11:01 AEST      Telco/ISP 	

Internode has blended ADSL2+ broadband with solar-powered microwave 
towers to deliver broadband coverage for Coorong District Council in 
South Australia.

The ISP built a voice and data broadband network that delivers broadband 
to around 6000 residents and businesses in the 8800 square kilometre 
area south east of Adelaide.

In conjunction with the council it built microwave radio towers that 
deliver Internode Wireless broadband across the Coorong landscape to 
reach peop0le in smaller townships and on farms.
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Tim Drew, CEO, Coorong District Council, said the Internode network has 
reduced the council’s voice call and data charges by around $30,000 a 
year, nearly three times the originally anticipated saving of $11,000 
per annum.

“Many people live well away from major towns or settlements, so they 
find it hard to access services that are easy for people in town. If 
they can get high-speed broadband in their homes, it means they don’t 
have to travel 100km to town,” he said.

Daryl Knight, national sales manager, Internode said the geography of 
the area lent itself to deploying the technology.

“It’s a wide area which helped when putting up the towers. We designed 
the network to meet the broadband needs of a low population density in 
this large area,” he said.

The Coorong Project was funded by federal, state and local government 
resources as well as an unspecified cash from Internode.

Of the 17 towers, 12 are self-powered through the use of $12,000 power 
systems that feature solar arrays, charge controllers and high capacity 
batteries.

These Solar Wireless Access Node (SWAN) towers - designed by Internode - 
have a battery capacity to run for several days without significant 
sunlight and are fully remote monitored.

Internode MD Simon Hackett (pictured) said “for this project, we built 
our own backhaul channel to Adelaide, giving us end-to-end control over 
the costs of our network and the whole network is also independent of 
Telstra”.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  When a distinguished but elderly
david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au  |  scientist states that something is
                                  |  possible, he is almost certainly
                                 |  right. When he states that
                                 |  something is impossible, he is
                                 |  very probably wrong.
                                                   --Arthur C. Clarke