We’re delighted to have Cyndi Barrera, Gross sales Vice President for State, Native, and Training (SLED) West at Presidio as visitor blogger on our channel.

Take into consideration your every day patterns at house. Activate the sunshine change, pour a drink of water, seize your cellphone. Utilizing that cellphone you’ll examine the information, do some buying, and pay a couple of payments on-line. The web entry you depend on on daily basis is significant for telehealth, job market info and academic alternatives.

The transition to the web of all the things is nice except you’re one of many thousands and thousands of individuals within the US residing in under-connected communities with out easy accessibility to on-line connectivity.

An absence of web entry is now a substantial drawback. Youngsters who’re unable to get on-line at house usually tend to have problem in class and danger getting decrease grades. And most job postings and public info is discovered on-line today, with a lot of it on-line solely. Through the pandemic, entry to Wi-Fi was a transparent lifeline. And lately, increasingly more routine processes have grow to be absolutely digital.

An achievable answer

The Metropolis of Fort Price, Texas has a trailblazing historical past of innovation and is within the early levels of its strategic plan to offer fiber connections to all residents. However that ground-breaking five-year dedication remains to be years away from completion. There are neighborhoods within the Metropolis that battle to entry reasonably priced and dependable web connectivity.

The Metropolis determined it could take motion to bridge this digital divide by offering free public Wi-Fi to probably the most affected neighborhoods.

Our workforce at Presidio partnered with Cisco to develop a plan and design an answer that might rapidly reply to this crucial want. On condition that the town was capable of leverage federal funding, we have been capable of put collectively an achievable answer to offer Wi-Fi to residents of 5 focused neighborhoods, and achieve this in simply weeks.

Know-how to satisfy the problem

The mission design was in progress in simply two weeks. Gear was being ordered inside a few months. The answer would come with Cisco Extremely-Dependable Wi-fi Backhaul radios (Cisco URWB), Cisco Industrial Ethernet 3300 Rugged Collection switches, and Cisco Meraki MR86 entry factors, which have been positioned strategically throughout the neighborhoods on poles or exterior public buildings. With this strategy, the Metropolis was capable of present important Wi-Fi protection to probably the most under-connected areas throughout the multi-year deployment of city-wide fiber. It will price lower than half of fiber, and be able to go a lot sooner.

As a part of the mission, Presidio labored out the place gear needs to be positioned to make sure the absolute best protection, whereas avoiding sign interference from bushes and different obstacles. The Presidio workforce additionally supported the deployment and stuck points alongside the way in which, which was difficult at instances to work round climate situations.

The rewards of digital equality

Thus far, the Metropolis supplies free public Wi-Fi entry to 40,000 individuals in 10,000 households, with one other 5,000 households resulting from come on-line very quickly. The Cisco URWB Radios allow the Wi-Fi service for customers as ‘set it and neglect it.’ And with Cisco Umbrella safety filtering content material, even the youngest residents within the space will discover secure web shopping.

Cisco Cloud administration options assist present straightforward community administration and any interruptions, equivalent to service outages, are flagged instantly. This sort of simplicity is an actual benefit for the Metropolis. And when the fiber roll-out is full, the know-how will proceed to make sure that Fort Price has a future-ready atmosphere for years to return.

Be taught extra



Cyndi Barrera has over 20 years of expertise in digital, knowledge and technology-based roles. She serves as Gross sales Vice President for State, Native, and Training (SLED) West at Presidio, which focuses on designing, implementing, and managing agile, safe digital platforms. Presidio is a Cisco accomplice centered on creating joint options and collaborative assist to realize desired enterprise outcomes for patrons throughout the globe.

Share: