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fSONA's SONAbeam Optical Wireless Systems Selected for Healthcare Network in Kuwait

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

Smartlink and ATC Kuwait Alliance to Deploy SONAbeam Network Systems for Transport of CT Images

fSONA Systems, the premiere provider of optical wireless systems, today announced that Smartlink Telecom in strategic alliance with Advance Technologies Company (ATC) are deploying a city wide high capacity wireless network throughout Kuwait City for the Ministry of Health (MOH).

The SONAbeam optical wireless network will transport critical hospital data as well as files generated by CAT scans (Computerized Axial Tomography) from specialized clinics across the city and hospital campus sites. CAT scan images are made up of a series of X-ray "slices" and each can range from 8 -12 MB in size. This hospital processes several thousand of these images every week, and one of the challenges is that the images cannot be compressed as compression can obscure vital patient data, and this in turn presents challenges with respect to high capacity data transport needed from one building to another, especially across a major city.

"At the present time the hospital would transfer the images to a compact disc (CD) and courier the images from the clinic to the main hospital," said Mazen Khatib General Manager for Smartlink Telecom. "fSONA and Smartlink Engineering met with the hospital IT department and, after doing an assessment of their overall requirements, it was quickly discovered that a point to point Radio solution that had already been proposed to them was going to creak at the seams with the sheer bandwidth overload, the only real solution was to utilize Free Space Optic technology for short- to mid-range applications, together with very high capacity IP licensed Microwave for the long haul segments of the network. With this network the hospital will save a critical amount of time with every transfer."

"Over the past three years Carl Cag of fSONA has become an integral part of the Smartlink Telecom team, and we are now proudly approaching our third year as an fSONA strategic partner," commented Khatib. "This medical network is cutting new ground within the Middle East, it is now delivering 40 times more full duplex capacity across the city than the initial radio LAN proposal for a similar cost. Having dealt with several wireless vendors it is clear that the strength within fSONA is not only in its unique carrier class transmission products, but within its people, and in this part of the world, people make all the difference."

"SONAbeam products are ideal for meeting the needs of healthcare networks," commented Sunny Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of fSONA. "To reap the benefits that today's healthcare applications offer requires a high-speed communications networks to support them. SONAbeam technology offers very high-speed optical wireless networking that is extremely secure and never compromises the privacy of health records."

The Smartlink/ATC hospital network joins numerous other SONAbeam deployments in the region such as the Omnitek Omni Link network in Istanbul, INET's metro Ethernet network in Saudi Arabia and the Bagram Airbase biometric security network in Afghanistan. As well, SONAbeam is already deployed at a number of healthcare and US government sites such as Cedars Sinai, Health Insurance Partners, City of Moreno Valley and the Pentagon.

ABOUT fSONA

fSONA was founded in 1997 and is recognized as the preferred provider of optical wireless solutions for the military, homeland security and service provider markets. Our customers include federal agencies, military bases, mobile wireless and Internet service providers as well as public and private enterprises. The SONAbeam series, based on free-space optics (FSO), uses a globally unlicensed, wireless technology operating at speeds up to 1.5 Gbps and distances up to 5km.

For more information visit www.fsona.com or www.free-space-optics.org

ABOUT ADVANCE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION

ATC is a specialized company based in Kuwait dealing with the import, supply and maintenance of medical, dental, laboratory, diagnostic, pharmaceutical, sterilization & disinfection, agriculture & veterinary products as well as health & fitness and commercial kitchen equipment. Our main objective is to achieve maximum customer satisfaction by way of providing state-of-the art technology.

Established in 1981 the company has registered steady growth gaining an enviable reputation for dependability and quality service. Today ATC is rated as a forerunner in the market catering to a well-built clientele supported by an agency network of world-renowned manufacturers/suppliers and manned with a professional team of over 250 multinational employees.

For more information visit www.atc.com.kw

ABOUT SMARTLINK TELECOM

Smartlink Ltd. is a telecom company that specializes in the technical and business aspects of designing, selling, and operating communication systems. Smartlink has a long-term strategy to be a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) and wireless-consulting firm in the MEA region.

Smartlink consists of Network and RF engineers with experience in RF planning, project management, Network design, WLAN and In-building design, system optimization and other aspects related to fixed and mobile wireless systems.

The company's core business competency is in direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) communications, and its products operate in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz (U-NII) license-exempt Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands.

Smartlink's primary market focus is educational, medical, military and commercial.

For more Information visit www.smartlinkltd.com

fSONA and SONAbeam(TM) are trademarks of fSONA Systems Corp. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies.

Source: Business Wire

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