SYDNEY, Australia - February 27, 2003 - Today, Senator the Honorable Richard Alston, Minister for Communications, IT and the Arts, officially opened the Cisco Converged Mobility Centre at Cisco Systems offices in North Sydney.
The centre, one of the first in the world, demonstrates to customers how the deployment of high-speed, IP-based networking can increase productivity and workforce efficiency, not only in companies but at locations such as hotel rooms and airport lounges.
Cisco IP telephony, virtual private networking, security and wireless technologies are featured in the centre to showcase and provide an advanced communications environment to customers.
During the launch, Senator Alston highlighted the contribution to the Cisco mobility solution made by wireless technology pioneered by Radiata, an Australian company Cisco acquired in November 2000. The wireless technology pioneered by Radiata and developed at Cisco is a chip set featured in the Cisco Aironet® 1200 Series Access Point, featuring a 5-GHz radio module, and 5-GHz network interface card (NIC).
The integration of the chip set allows wireless local-area-network (WLAN) users to transfer data at speeds up to 54 Mbps, under the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a standard. The 802.11a solution complements the IEEE 802.11b standard, 11-Mbps solution, which is also offered by Cisco.
The Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Point is compliant with both IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b standards to help ensure that customers can choose to implement either or both standards in their WLAN solution.
Senator Alston said Brisbane Boys' College is among the first Australian customers to use the 802.11a Cisco wireless networking technology, and he noted the college's role as a leader in the use of high-speed wireless data networks in schools.
"This technology is a great example of an Australian innovation success story. Radiata, which started as a federal government research-and-development initiative, has come to commercial fruition since being acquired by Cisco," Senator Alston said.
"Today, we have an excellent example of Australian skills producing Australian product for the world stage," he said.
Cisco Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Terry Walsh said; "The opening of the Mobility Centre as an applications test bed reflects the Cisco strategy to deliver business mobility to customers for transparent network access and maximum productivity."
Cisco's Australian 802.11a customers span a number of industries and cross a variety of applications.
Brisbane Boys' College is using a 54-Mbps 802.11a wireless network to bypass cabling and provide students with laptops and high-bandwidth network connections in classrooms. The college wanted the most advanced and secure wireless capacity for its newly refurbished building, becoming the first school in Australia to use 802.11a technology.
Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries (API) is another Australian customer that has selected the Cisco mobility solution with 802.11a technology, andhas implemented a trial 802.11a platform at its new Camellia site in Sydney. API selected the high-speed wireless LAN from Cisco as an alternative solution to a major network upgrade in the future.
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