CityLink
| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Broadband |
| Founded: | New Zealand, 1996 |
| Headquarters: | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Country: | New Zealand |
| Website: | http://www.citylink.co.nz/ |
CityLink is an IT company which offers high speed broadband services across Wellington on their self build network. The company was born out of Wellington City Council as a community oriented, innovative service provider which went on to become the most advanced citywide broadband communication network in the entire New Zealand. CityLink provides open access to reliable, fast and cost-friendly internet services to various service providers and users. The company also offers internet connectivity to ICANN Wellington with conjunction with ASIA Netcom and FX Networks.
History
The formation of CityLink dates back to the late 1995, when it emerged as a result of sponsored initiative by a Wellington City Council for the deployment of low cost yet advanced communications network to give a competitive edge to the government enterprises and local businesses. The community spirit has soared ever since giving way to the formation of an effective platform for digital marketing creating favorable opportunities for both the service givers and users.
CityLink was born as the brainchild of Richard Naylor, who had been the IT Manager of Wellington City Council since 1986 and revolutionized the broadband connection network making the city amongst the best connected in the world. The young electrical engineer naturally thought about connecting buildings for data exchange and soon, he was linking fibre-optic cables between the various council offices. Soon, he also installed the Gopher server and Wellington City Council became the first company to provide the first local government website in the world giving free access to several residents with PCs. Vint Cerf better recognized as the Internet’s ‘father,’ showered praises on the city for being the first in the world to establish such broadband network. In September 1995, the InfoCity project was approved by the council and thus, CityLink was born. With people discovering the superior advantages of high-speed broadband, CityLink’s business peaked up and within 10 weeks, a fishnet-type mesh network with 50 buildings was formed. The first network to be established by CityLink was within the Wellington CBD which was later extended to the Auckland CBD. Recently, the network has also been fleshed out to the Wellington suburbs of Petone and Miramar, with further expansion projects in the pipeline.
Services
Connections
CityLink offers a full range of cost effective, robust and fast broadband services for meeting various business requirements. The company provides neutral broadband network which gives both the users and service providers open access via industry-standard protocols and interfaces. Customers can select any service provider or even add their own services onto the CityLink network. Their services are summarized below –
Public Connections
PublicLAN – This service is meant for connecting ISPs to users and business partners using metro Ethernet LAN. It is now available in over 500 buildings across Auckland and Wellington.
ExchangeNET – This service by CityLink is an internet exchange collection which facilitates independent IP traffic exchange between friend organizations.
Private Connections
Ultra 1G – This service gives one complete 2 way access to unconstrained 1 Gigabit per Second Speed "light-paths" without link sharing or data rate limiting. FibreLINK – This 7x24 supported service is to provide the user with the security and flexibility of dark fibre for building up self communication network and connecting self equipments. PrivateLAN – This connection service gives the user a secure VLAN network between 2 or more sites, allowing easy office LAN extension and unlimited traffic transfer. CityBridge – This service is meant for connecting the networks in the metropolitan area with networks in other cities in conjunction with ExchangeNET, PrivateLAN and PublicLAN.
Other Services
SiteNET – This is basically a network neutral online data hub created by CityLink to enable the users in co-locating their servers with company and access the company’s high speed broadband services.
Harmony – The CDN or Harmony content distribution network with two specialized services – ProPortion and ProStream, gives the digital content owners of New Zealand a scalable solution to meet the user requirements, optimized end user experience and low cost delivery to both domestic as well as international viewers with pre-laid pricing plans.
CafeNET – This service enables the user to travel freely and use a PDA or WiFi-enabled laptop with the CafeNET wireless hotspots mushroom in the major centres.
WatchNET – This service provides remote monitoring to events, traffic or places of interest by way of its webcam collection.
References
- [www.citylink.co.nz/ CityLink]
- [www.siliconwelly.com/citylink/]
- [www.docstoc.com/docs/37805019/CityLink-FutureCITY-4indd/ docstoc]
- [gsa.icann.org/ gsa.icann]