Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh wireless networks and global distribution partner AIRadio have solved the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM)’s Metro M8 line connectivity challenge.
It made reliable Wi-Fi available to all commuters. Using Rajant Kinetic Mesh wireless radio nodes known as Hawk BreadCrumbs all M8 passengers can access 300Mbps of uninterrupted Internet while traveling at high speeds underground. IMM introduced the Rajant-enabled Wi-Fi commuter service on August 17, 2023, marking the 24th anniversary of the August 17, 1999 earthquake.
IMM has emphasized the significance of the Internet infrastructure provided by AIRadio within the Metro cars and terminal for day-to-day communication needs as well as emergencies.
Erol Ozguner, CIO at IMM, said: “Thanks to the infrastructural investments we have made, 2.5 million passengers traveling by the metros will enjoy the Internet as they can use it more efficiently.” Nihat Narin, the President of ISTTELKOM, Subsidiary of IMM, communicated his aim to make the commuter travel experience more modern. Narin added: “We are working non-stop with a view to encouraging the people of Istanbul to prefer the rail systems more often, as we further improve the technological infrastructure of the city.”
Koral Turkkan, AIRadio VP Sales and Business Development, shared: “Deploying a dedicated LTE or even a 5G network was not an option due to challenges, such as CAPEX and OPEX costs. Further, neither LTE or 5G provide seamless handoffs to maintain user-application connections, whether for entertainment like Netflix or live-streamed Google Meet. As a distributor of Rajant, we know Kinetic Mesh is a truly disruptive technology that has delivered several very large project wins for AIRadio, so we brought this high bandwidth wireless solution to IMM’s attention. Now, the M8 metro line’s 40,000 plus daily passengers have the convenience and peace-of-mind access to the internet as they rapidly travel underground. A first ever real-time video conference between Turkey, Kazakhstan and South Africa was captured using Google Meet.”
Marcin Kusztal, Rajant Sales Director in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, concluded: “Rajant Kinetic Mesh BreadCrumb wireless nodes have seen extensive deployments supporting high-mobility applications for underground and tunnel environments. In the case of the Istanbul Metro, AIRadio installed Hawk BreadCrumbs in combination with Rajant RCP tunnel antennas and SlipStream XG for both trackside and on-train deployment, which exceeded the required average throughput per customer, per train.”
