fSONA selected for secure banking network expansion by Mauritius Commercial Bank

Fiber Optics Weekly Update, August 19, 2005

fSONA Systems, the leading provider of secure optical wireless systems to service provider and military markets, announced that Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) will expand their secure wireless banking network with additional SONAbeam(R) technology to be installed and commissioned by I-Telecom, the Communications Division of Ireland Blythe Limited Group (IBL).

In 2003, IBL installed an optical wireless network consisting of five SONAbeam systems for MCB throughout the city and waterfront area of Port-Louis, Mauritius. IBL and MCB selected SONAbeam for the initial phase of this network build-out because of the technology's inherent Layer 1 security features, which allow for the secure transmission of confidential data across the city.

"In the two years since this network was initially deployed, MCB has experienced outstanding performance from our SONAbeam network," said Patrice Ferriere, General Manager for I-Telecom (IBL). "When it came time to expand the network, internal policy dictated that the bank was required to reevaluate other communications technologies as well as the main competitors of fSONA. After a rigorous evaluation of the alternatives, it was unanimously decided to continue the expansion with fSONA's SONAbeam. The conclusion we came to with the information technology division of MCB was that fSONA today, as it did two years ago, offers a very high quality solution that provided superior all weather performance and increased reliability over competing systems. Due to the fact that our prime centers of operation present geographic challenges in that they are situated several hours by aircraft off the coast of mainland Africa, IBL Group have an uncompromising internal policy with respect to only doing business with people that can step up to the plate when it comes to support. Over the past three years, Carl Cag and the fSONA EMEA team have given unquestionable support to IBL Group ranging from communication strategy meetings at the government level through to sweating it out with our engineering division on mast sites at the top of mountains. fSONA has achieved a level and of faith and understanding within our organization that others can only aspire to reach; their complete understanding of our requirements and strategic vision have made a very real difference."

"fSONA is proud that our SONAbeam products have been selected for the second phase of this secure banking network by I-Telecom, and Mauritius Commercial Bank," commented Sunny Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of fSONA Systems. "The network that has been established in Port-Louis is a superb example of an all-wireless, Gigabit capacity, secure private banking network. What is especially notable in this case is the geographic challenges that were overcome--a mesh architecture was utilized in the metro areas while links were deployed in daisy chain over the mountains that surround the city of Port Louis and into a banking center in the next town. It is clear that the team at I-Telecom are breaking new ground with the tactical use of free space optics technology and we are honored to be an integral part of their ongoing success."