| 7/17/08 - The municipal Wi-Fi network in the City of Lompoc, California is achieving commercial success with a growing number of subscribers, using technology from Aptilo Networks, the global leader in integrated solutions for Service Management and Access Control for wireless networks including WiMAX , wireless mesh and Wi-Fi hotspots. Announced today, the City has replaced their existing service management system with the Aptilo Service Management Platform, which enables and manages Wi-Fi access and provides service control.
The move to the Aptilo platform allows Lompoc to provide superior service availability and high broadband speeds to all of its 42,000 residents. It also allows Lompoc to expand the capability of the muni Wi-Fi service to an unlimited number of subscribers.
The improved service is helping Lompoc accommodate an increasing demand for the citywide Wi-Fi network -- called LompocNet -- which is available to residents as a lower cost alternative to other paid broadband access. The previous solution had limited the number of possible subscribers and was not able to accommodate the rapid growth in LompocNet users.
LompocNet covers the entire City of Lompoc, a footprint of 7.5 square miles, using a wireless mesh network of 209 nodes from Tropos Networks.
"The switch to Aptilo's solution has played a key role in making municipal Wi-Fi successful for Lompoc," said Richard Gracyk, wireless services administrator, City of Lompoc. "We chose Aptilo after a thorough RFP process. Aptilo solved all of our previous limitations, and today user satisfaction is high. Aptilo's Service Management Platform has allowed us to offer our residents a product we are comfortable with and that we can support. Best of all, it just works."
The City of Lompoc is using Aptilo's solution via the company's software-as-a-service (SaaS) option, the Aptilo Managed Service. With this hosted solution, Aptilo operates the wireless broadband service from one of Aptilo's Network Operation Centers (NOCs).
"Aptilo's managed service offers unique flexibility for the City of Lompoc, to be able to provide a municipal wireless broadband service that's cost-effective to run and easy to use from both the user and administrator perspective," said Christer Holm, VP Sales, Aptilo Networks Inc. "The Aptilo Managed Service has been proven time and again in municipal deployments throughout the world. We are excited to be a part of this deployment with the City of Lompoc, today an example of municipal Wi-Fi success."
Simplified Management with Hosted Solution
The City of Lompoc is using the Aptilo Managed Service, a hosted solution where Aptilo's Service Management Platform and the Aptilo Service Portal are centrally operated in one of Aptilo's Network Operation Centers.
The flexibility of a hosted platform simplified administration for Lompoc's Broadband staff, minimizing the need for the City to devote internal resources to manage the operation of the service.
Aptilo's hosted solution replaced Lompoc's outdated service management system, which did not offer the customer care necessary to support Lompoc's changing needs. Aptilo's offering also provided much-needed network security along with extensive reporting and monitoring capabilities.
"We needed better control of our customer experience. Aptilo's Service Management Platform provides us with control over accounts, the user experience, reporting -- every aspect of the service. We can also utilize Aptilo's outstanding service monitoring capabilities so we can understand how our residents use the service, and how to improve moving forward," noted Gracyk.
Carrier-Grade, Scalable Wireless Network
The Aptilo Service Management Platform is a highly scalable carrier-grade wireless solution that effectively handles data and voice service delivery across multiple devices while enabling creation of new revenue-generating value-added services and supporting future network scalability in a unified platform. Aptilo's feature-rich, comprehensive Wi-Fi service management solution encompasses authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA), portal management, service monitoring, security, statistics and customer care options.
Working with the Aptilo Service Management Platform, the Aptilo Service Portal is the main tool for the automatic processing and display of data output from the provided service, including storage of usage information and events, aggregating statistics and monitoring data.
Aptilo's Access Controller, which securely communicates with the service platform and oversees access and Quality of Service control, sits at the edge of the network infrastructure.
Keywords: city of lompoc, service management system, lompoc california, wireless broadband service, rfp process, mesh network, tropos networks, broadband speeds, existing service, improved service, service availability, management platform, wi fi, mesh networks | 
