Chicago’s leading network service provider, ExteNet recently announced that two of the city’s land mark buildings – the 110-story Willis Tower and the nearly 100-year-old Navy Pier – are now benefiting from the company’s world-class, home-grown wireless technology installations.
ExteNet Systems installed the indoor and outdoor distributed networks, often called distributed antenna systems (DAS) for these two landmark Chicago destinations. The systems will also be operated and maintained by ExteNet Systems, the company revealed in a press release. The installations, according to the company will provide robust mobile coverage for many of the 9 million people that annually visit these destinations.
Willis Tower, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, provides 3.8 million square feet of office, retail and indoor public space at the city’s financial district. The distributed network installed by ExteNet at Willis Tower will handle advanced wireless technologies such as UMTS and LTE (News - Alert) in common areas and offices throughout the building, as well as the parking garage levels.
Navy Pier, which consists of 50 acres of parks, promenades, gardens, shops and attractions, announced a $155 million Centennial Vision for upgrading and expansion of the Illinois’ most popular tourist attraction. A major tourist attraction, Nav Pier attracts millions of visitors annually.
At Navy Pier, upgraded indoor and outdoor network nodes will provide wireless coverage throughout, including at the Family Pavilion, Crystal Gardens, Dock Street Shops, Festival Hall and Meeting Rooms, and the Grand Ballroom.
“With just these two Chicagoland network deployments, there are millions of square feet of office, retail and public space with wireless coverage. Across the country, ExteNet’s distributed networks are an integral part of every carrier’s indoor network deployments – whether it’s in large hospital systems, university campuses, government buildings, hotels or athletic facilities,” Ross Manire, ExteNet’s CEO commented in s statement.
Earlier this month, ExteNet announced its selection by the University of Michigan (U-M) for designing, building and operating an open distributed wireless network for use by multiple carriers. The project was designed to cover both outdoor and indoor space at all three campuses of the university – Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint.
The students, faculty, staff and guests will have access to seamless wireless coverage throughout the campus, thanks to the installation of its distributed antenna system (DAS) network, ExteNet officials clarified in an earlier release.
Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jennifer Russell