CBNL wins 2017 Global Telecoms Award for smart city initiative
CBNL, the market leader in licensed point-to-multipoint (PMP) microwave and millimeter wave, has been named a winner at the Global Telecoms Awards 2017 (GLOTELS) for its ground-breaking 26GHz smart city project.
The GLOTELS recognize innovation and excellence in the global telecom business space. They are presented by Telecoms.com.
CBNL received top honours in the ‘Best Digital Transformation Project’ category, beating strong competition from some of the industry’s largest companies.
The award recognises CBNL’s leading role in the Metropolitan Telecommunication Network (MTN) in Rzeszów, Poland.
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 CEO said:
“We’re delighted to win this highly prestigious award, which recognizes a project that has revolutionised connectivity in Rzeszów, a city with a population of 187,000.
"CBNL’s VectaStar solution was used to deliver the project, leveraging its unique spectrum reuse and virtualization techniques to create multipurpose network layers that deliver a variety of services.
"The network is a great example of showcasing how the latest millimetre wave technology can provide the most cost effective route to ubiquitous urban connectivity, with benefits that will be felt for many years.”
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%.
Scott Bicheno, Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, commented:
“We had a record-breaking number of entries this year, spanning 19 categories with 86 companies making the final shortlist.
"Our esteemed panel of judges personally graded each and every entry, thus guaranteeing the all-important integrity of the awards, meaning every winner deservedly takes home their gong because their peers said they’re the best.
"I congratulate the winners and everyone else who contributed to a great night.”
The project is the latest in a series of smart city and surveillance networks delivered by CBNL, building on the company’s backhaul and pre-5G fixed wireless deployments, which now stretch over 50 countries.
To find out more about the Rzeszów project, a video case study can be viewed here.