Westside Union School District Delivers High-Speed Internet Access to Every Classroom With Proxim Wireless Solutions

Westside Union School District Delivers High-Speed Internet Access to Every Classroom With Proxim Wireless Solutions

Combination of Proxim ORiNOCO Access Points and Tsunami BWA Systems Delivers Reliable and Affordable District-Wide Access

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Proxim Corporation (NASDAQ:PROX), a global leader in wireless networking equipment for Wi-Fi and broadband wireless networks, today announced that Westside Union School District, a K-12 district based in Lancaster, California, has deployed a wireless network based on Proxim's Wi-Fi and broadband wireless equipment. Using a combination of Proxim ORiNOCO AP-4000s, and a range of Proxim Tsunami Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems, the school district, which serves over 7,000 students, has implemented a high-speed wireless network that links ten schools and a district office, and provides Internet access to every classroom in the district.

Like many school districts, Westside Union struggled with meeting ambitious goals on a limited budget. The district wanted to upgrade its existing infrastructure to provide higher speed connectivity, support an increased number of users and give every classroom Gigabit capacity and Internet access. In addition to a tight budget, the district had to grapple with logistical issues including temporary, portable buildings and physical obstacles such as retaining walls between schools that made traditional, fiber-based solutions cost-prohibitive. To further complicate matters, a multitude of wireless DSL providers broadcasting in the district's area were clogging the 2.4 GHz frequency, making it an unreliable broadcast medium.

To overcome these challenges, Westside Union deployed Tsunami point-to- point and multipoint BWA systems, offering speeds of 60 to 100 Mbps, between each school and the district office. The Tsunami systems used the 5GHz frequency to avoid interference and increase reliability. The district then ran CAT 6E wiring in most of its classrooms to provide Internet access to the students' desktops. The exceptions were those schools housed in temporary structures; for these buildings, the district deployed ORiNOCO AP-4000 access points to deliver high-speed access to the classrooms. In addition, AP-4000s were deployed in each of the school's multipurpose areas, such as gymnasiums and auditoriums, to give students and staff Internet and network access.

Today, administrators can access the network and the Internet on any school campus, just as if they were sitting in the central district office. All classrooms have high-speed access, so that students have a wealth of resources at their fingertips. Wi-Fi access in the multipurpose rooms enables easy set-up for special events and presentations and Wi-Fi in the cafeterias is now used to transfer point of sale information from the cafeterias to the district office. Finally, the new network has greatly reduced the maintenance and support burden for the district's IT staff. IT personnel can now maintain the wireless network remotely, saving time and money.

"We recognized that giving every classroom Internet access was a significant challenge, given our limited resources and budget," explained Mark Peterson, Network Manager for Westside Union School District. "But we had some previous experience with Proxim's products and were impressed by their reliability and performance, as well as the company's savvy technical support team. Working with the Proxim team, we deployed a network that met our requirements to a tee. The results are dramatic increases in the speed and reliability of the network, huge productivity gains for our district's staff and improved learning for our students."

"This is an excellent example of a K-12 district making the most of a limited budget to meet ambitious and innovative technology goals," said Ben Gibson, vice president of corporate marketing for Proxim. "With our wireless solutions, the district overcame significant obstacles including undesirable geographical locations, the inclusion of temporary structures and the interference associated with some wireless frequencies. With its creative deployment of Proxim Wi-Fi and broadband wireless solutions, Westside Union now serves as a model for other districts that want to bring their students and staff the benefits of high-speed wireless access."

Plans for future expansion in the district include the building of four new schools, all of which will require connection to the district office and the same high-speed Internet access now available at the district's other school sites.

About Proxim

Proxim Corporation is a global leader in wireless networking equipment for Wi-Fi and broadband wireless networks. The company is providing its enterprise and service provider customers with wireless solutions for the mobile enterprise, security and surveillance, last mile access, voice and data backhaul, public hot spots, and metropolitan area networks. This press release and more information about Proxim can be found on the Web at http://www.proxim.com/ .

Safe Harbor

This press release may contain forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from Proxim's expectations in these statements. For additional information regarding risks relating to Proxim's business, see Proxim Corporation's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 and Forms 10-Q for quarters ended April 2, 2004, July 2, 2004 and October 1, 2004. Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other relevant materials filed by Proxim with the SEC. Proxim assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.


Source: Proxim Corporation

CONTACT: Sylvia Clark of Proxim Corporation,
+1-408-542-3357, sclark@proxim.com; Lori S. Hultin of LSH Communications,
+1-818-879-4651, lhultin@sbcglobal.net, for Proxim

Web site: http://www.proxim.com/


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