According to BAI, the deal will see the company use ZenFi’s significant fibre connectivity assets, wireless infrastructure solutions including small cells, and network colocation facilities across the New York and New Jersey metro areas to combine with BAI-owned Transit Wireless’ New York City subway infrastructure. Combined with BAI-owned Mobilitie’s 5G outdoor and indoor wireless solutions, the company aims to become a scale provider across New York before growing to cover North America.
Igor Leprince, CEO of BAI, said: “The alignment that exists between the operations and outlook of ZenFi Networks and BAI in the broader New York area presents an opportunity that is greater than the sum of its parts.
“With an operational footprint that is perfectly aligned to our own, and enhanced IoT capabilities, this acquisition is an obvious next step for extending our reach in the region and is an exciting development for us in the North American market as we look to bring enterprises, municipalities, and mobile network operators a broader range of services and depth of expertise.”
ZenFi Networks has agreed to deliver mobile infrastructure solutions across 4,000 LinkNYC kiosk structures across New York. The acquisition will also bring over 1,100 route miles of fibre network across the New York and New Jersey metro region, as well as unique C-RAN solutions and mobile network operators.
Co-founder of ZenFi, Ray LaChance will continue to lead the organisation as part of BAI and said the deal would mean ZenFi would next look to “target fast-growth segments like small cell deployment with the scale and reach that BAI has across North America”.
Alongside the acquisition of ZenFi, BAI has continued its work towards making Sunderland “the UK’s most advanced smart city” by establishing a first ‘5G University’. BAI will work with Sunderland City Council and the University of Sunderland to deploy advanced wireless technologies across the campuses, creating a 5G test lab.
A 5G test lab will be developed on the University’s Sir Tom Cowie campus at St Peter’s, meaning The University of Sunderland is now set to become one of the UK’s first 5G-enabled universities, putting it at the forefront of smart education.
Other features include a new IoT network across the university’s campuses, which will improve operational efficiency for a broad range of services such as estate management and footfall analytics. Enhanced public WiFi will be available across the campuses, using EduROAM to give students, staff and visiting guests access to the new ultra-fast public WiFi service being made available across the centre of Sunderland and Roker as part of its smart city infrastructure roll-out.
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Sir David Bell, Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said: “The collaboration between the University of Sunderland and BAI is an excellent example of how different sectors and bodies are working together to put Sunderland at the forefront of digital innovation. Educational institutions, public services and business all benefit from enhanced digital infrastructure so I am very optimistic about the opportunities this partnership will open up for our students, staff and the wider community.”
