Downtown residents may have noticed some new wireless networks popping up on their devices. Capaciti is behind the fiber-fast networks that offer wireless internet options for businesses and users on the street.
“It’s focused on bringing better, faster and cheaper speeds to the business community,” says Chief Strategy Officer, Angus Davis.
Davis says comparing Capaciti’s services to what’s currently available is like comparing apples and oranges. Many companies typically repackage residential services for business purposes, but businesses often utilize technologies such as VoIP that require different network features.
“Every single business is using cloud services and they need the bandwidth for that,” says Cindi Nellis, Marketing and Communications Director.
Capaciti’s networks are designed to fill the broadband needs of small and medium sized businesses. The all-wireless network provides the characteristics of fiber networks with out the cost.
“We’re a third or better in terms of cost,” Davis says. Tests have also clocked upload speeds three times as fast as others. During field testing, speeds were clocked at125 MBps on a smart phone, 90MBps on a moving smart phone and 200MBps on a laptop. A user that tested the network said a program that normally took him 30 minutes to download took about 35 seconds while on Capaciti’s network. The lightning speeds also leave room for more people to be on the network before speeds would slow down.
Two factors set Capaciti’s networks apart from other broadband providers. First is what they describe as the latest and greatest WiFi technology, and second is the close together design of their network access points.
“AÂ typical carrier might put 40 radios in the downtown market.” Davis says. “We have about three times that many in the design plan.”
In addition to business services, Capaciti provides wireless on the street. Users connect to a Capaciti network – currently Capaciti Networks or Columbus Capaciti – and go to any browser where they will be directed to a splash page to sign up for services. Users can purchase WiFi for the hour, day, week or whatever length of time they need. Hourly rates vary from $2.99 to $8.99 depending on speed, daily rates from $6.99 to $12.99, weekly rates from $25.97 to $38.97, and monthly rates from $39.95 to $59.95.
Capaciti is based in Texas, but Columbus’s innovative nature attracted the company to launch locally first. Seeing that small- to medium-sized businesses will produce the majority of job growth in the city, Capaciti wanted to offer them an opportunity to access a better product at a better price point.
“Our business model is directly aimed at Columbus’s main drivers for growth,” Davis says.
Capaciti’s networks are currently heavily concentrated in the downtown market, but the company has plans to expand.
For more information, visit capacitinetworks.com.
