The Blue Zone Chooses DragonWave's Horizon Compact Solution

The Blue Zone, a fixed wireless provider for the Middle East and North American market, recently announced that it has selected DragonWave’s (News - Alert) backhaul solution, the Horizon Compact, to enable a quick and cost-effective WiMAX service expansion to its residential and business customers across Jordan.

The Horizon Compact delivers low-latency microwave backhaul at a speed up to 200 Mbps. DragonWave’s Horizon suite of products operate in both licensed and unlicensed radio frequencies, usually between 6 and 38 GHz, and delivers pure packet microwave performance, with a scalable software and with ultra-low latency transport of up to 4 Gbps per link. DragonWave’s carrier-grade products offer interference-free performance in next-generation IP networks.

The Horizon Compact is a compact, all-outdoor chassis and internal framework, which was designed to integrate the traditional split indoor moderns and outdoor radio functionality, and offers simplified operations to improve the total lifecycle costs for backhaul. For this project, The Blue Zone has signed a contract with DragonWave’s regional reseller, Waseela, to deploy the Horizon Compact for at least 100 backhaul links between 15 and 23 Ghz in Jordan, by the end of 2010.

As per the terms of the agreement, the Blue Zone will also undertake the planning and designing of the backhaul network with the support and assistance from DragonWave’s network planning services. Waseela promotes all-IP and efficient broadband wireless networks for the Middle East region, and this project synergizes with the Blue Zone strategies to deploy packet microwave solutions.

"The Horizon Compact is a key element in our growth strategy. It offers industry-leading levels of backhaul scalability, throughput, latency and spectral efficiency that will enable us to cost-effectively provide our customers with state-of-the-art offerings,” said Ahmed El-Mahdawy, CEO for the Blue Zone. “Also, DragonWave's rugged solution will enable us to rapidly turn up reliable, high-quality services even in the most challenging environments, such as Jordan's deserts, and then easily and dynamically upgrade speeds as business opportunities dictate."

Peter Allen (News - Alert), president and CEO of DragonWave, added, "The Blue Zone is introducing unprecedented services in their markets, and our solution will help them do so quickly and cost-effectively. A unique combination of unparalleled performance, inherent flexibility and low total cost of ownership continues to solidify DragonWave's position as the microwave backhaul provider of choice for next-generation service deployments in diverse markets around the globe. The Horizon Compact is specifically engineered to enable wireless service providers such as the Blue Zone to easily and efficiently adapt as market penetration and service offerings grow."