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Southaven wireless now available city-wide
By CYNTHIA BULLION
Times News Staff
SOUTHAVEN After more than a year of delays, the City of Southaven is upgrading its wireless Internet system, Magnolia Wave, that has been available to residents in the northern portion of the city since 2005.
The city completed the first phase of the upgrade – which included installing more than 100 routers, or devices that pick up and transmit wireless frequencies, on utility poles to serve residents in a 10-square-mile area along Church Road between Getwell and Hwy. 51 – last month.
This past week, it designated the company from which it purchased the routers, or Canton, Ga.-based Tropos Network, as the sole provider for an additional estimated 400 routers to replace existing ones serving residents along the Stateline Road corridor between Getwell and Hwy. 51.
Southaven IT Manager Jason Grant said the city has not received a bid for the additional routers, but city officials in 2006 approved spending $805,962 with the company for the first phase of the upgrade that was officially announced the following month.
That money has now been disbursed, and approximately 150 residents in the area benefiting from the first phase of the upgrade have joined the Magnolia Wave bandwagon, he said.
Grant said the delay in expanding the service to the south stemmed from negotiations the city had to work out with utility provider Entergy.
“We’re good to go now, though,” he said.
The city requested authorization to install the routers on utility poles owned by Entergy, but the company that had never received such a request wanted to investigate the legality of the issue and create installation guidelines that would apply to all cities in its service area, Entergy regional customer service representative Pat Nelson said.
Under the guidelines, Southaven will maintain the routers and pay a per month rate for each router located on Entergy-owned utility poles.
Grant said installation of new routers to serve the northern portion of the city could begin by this fall. Magnolia Wave users may notice some performance issues while the router from which they receive a signal is replaced, but they will not lose service altogether, he said.
Once completed, Grant said the upgrades would provide some 500 users throughout the city with more reliable service, which is offered to residents and businesses at different rates.
The upgrades convert the Magnolia Wave system from multi-point system that is susceptible to outages during storms to a mesh system that creates a signal overlay so users can connect to the Internet from multiple routers.
Cynthia Bullion can be reached at cbullion@desototimes.com or 429-NEWS.
The city completed the first phase of the upgrade – which included installing more than 100 routers, or devices that pick up and transmit wireless frequencies, on utility poles to serve residents in a 10-square-mile area along Church Road between Getwell and Hwy. 51 – last month.
This past week, it designated the company from which it purchased the routers, or Canton, Ga.-based Tropos Network, as the sole provider for an additional estimated 400 routers to replace existing ones serving residents along the Stateline Road corridor between Getwell and Hwy. 51.
Southaven IT Manager Jason Grant said the city has not received a bid for the additional routers, but city officials in 2006 approved spending $805,962 with the company for the first phase of the upgrade that was officially announced the following month.
That money has now been disbursed, and approximately 150 residents in the area benefiting from the first phase of the upgrade have joined the Magnolia Wave bandwagon, he said.
Grant said the delay in expanding the service to the south stemmed from negotiations the city had to work out with utility provider Entergy.
“We’re good to go now, though,” he said.
The city requested authorization to install the routers on utility poles owned by Entergy, but the company that had never received such a request wanted to investigate the legality of the issue and create installation guidelines that would apply to all cities in its service area, Entergy regional customer service representative Pat Nelson said.
Under the guidelines, Southaven will maintain the routers and pay a per month rate for each router located on Entergy-owned utility poles.
Grant said installation of new routers to serve the northern portion of the city could begin by this fall. Magnolia Wave users may notice some performance issues while the router from which they receive a signal is replaced, but they will not lose service altogether, he said.
Once completed, Grant said the upgrades would provide some 500 users throughout the city with more reliable service, which is offered to residents and businesses at different rates.
The upgrades convert the Magnolia Wave system from multi-point system that is susceptible to outages during storms to a mesh system that creates a signal overlay so users can connect to the Internet from multiple routers.
Cynthia Bullion can be reached at cbullion@desototimes.com or 429-NEWS.
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