MiRO’s airFiber5X provides cost-effective, high-speed link for WISP’s internet backbone

Speed and cost are not always synonymous terms with respect to Internet backbones, however, MiRO’s airFiber carrier class network backhaul technology from Ubiquiti recently provided just that – a cost-effective, high-quality link solution for Wicotel.

Wicotel, a wireless internet service provider (WISP), faced a dilemma when looking for an alternative to the existing wireless links for its alpha and beta breakout points over 11 km. The company’s Christo Smal explains that they had experienced issues with wireless links either being too expensive, or with the less expensive ones being unreliable with regard to throughput.

According to MiRO’s Philip Schoeman, Wicotel requires consistent fibre-like speed to provide their clients with the required throughput. However, since fibre to the end point was not a feasible option, a wireless solution, capable of transmitting fibre-like speeds, was considered.

Ubiquiti’s airFiber5X is a recent addition to the Ubiquiti product range and is proving extremely popular due to its excellent throughput, stability, ability to cope well with interference and its affordability.

Schoeman says that the airFiber5X provides excellent throughput and low latency in areas where interference is an issue through flexible channel configuration, thus allowing the operator to select different channel frequencies for TX and RX.

“The throughput we initially achieved with airFiber far exceeded 150 Mbps. However, we eventually detuned it to just over 70 Mbps as we felt it was preferable to sacrifice some speed for extended stability. Interestingly, after receiving quotes from other backhaul suppliers, it was clear that to achieve the same throughput would have cost us up to 600% more. The airFiber5X is able to fulfil all our requirements within our budgetary restrictions,” Smal says.