Wi-Fi small cell fills in blackspot on Birchip-Sea Lake Road

Zetifi’s vision for solving connectivity in rural and remote areas includes the provision of multiple public access Wi-Fi small cells to fill in the gaps at known blackspots. Being able to deliver on this strategy relies on many complementary ideas and innovations, including ‘sleepy’ Wi-Fi power management, proprietary software to remotely deploy and manage our networks, and ruggedised farm-tough product design and construction. Over the last 12 months, we’ve had the opportunity to test and validate many aspects of our approach and technology as part of an extensive connectivity pilot project with Birchip Cropping Group (BCG). Many of BCG’s members have significant connectivity problems and they were interested in investigating the possibility for farm-wide and region-wide Wi-Fi from Zetifi as part of the solution. Whilst it won’t solve the problem on its own, we recently installed a single standalone solar-powered ZetiCell along Birchip-Sea Lake Road as part of this project to demonstrate the potential of our small cells in rural and remote blackspots. The small cell consists of a ZetiCell gateway mounted on a ZetiPod, which is a specially designed structure that is built to withstand rough treatment from livestock and can be delivered and deployed without the need for heavy machinery or site preparation. Within 30 minutes of arriving on site, we’d installed a permanent long-range Wi-Fi connection that’s ready for use.