ESAT Digifone offers corporate LAN access nationwide using Brand Apollo

ESAT Digifone, Ireland’s most successful GSM network, has built a nationwide corporate GSM LAN access platform using Apollo from Brand Communications Limited.

Their brief was simple; to be the first and best network operator when it came to data innovation and corporate solutions. Digifone had built an impressive corporate voice network (known as CPN), they wanted to extend GSM data to those same corporates, and to win many more new ones. So they turned to Apollo.

Brand Communications helped them to design, build and operate a platform which was totally secure, diverse in terms of connecting multiple customers each with their own needs, and scaleable to meet the demand. It also had to be simple to manage. The result was "Digifone EasyData", a product name that speaks for itself.

Each corporate rolls out copies of the Apollo Emulator to its mobile workers, and Digifone provides access to the EasyData system and an onwards connection to their LAN.

The mobile workers use Windows 95, 98 or NT PCs and any one of Digifone’s approved GSM data products (eg. Nokia Cellular Data Suite or Ericsson 888). They authenticate against their own corporate RADIUS server for maximum control and security. The link that Digifone provides from the GSM network back to the corporate premises is either part of an existing 2Mb/s circuit or via a public Frame Relay or ATM connection using tunnelling. In effect, the mobile worker then experiences a full LAN connection via GSM and he/she can run any applications (eg. email, intranet, database access). One superb example of an EasyData customer is Siemens who has rolled out EasyData to its field engineers.

Deirdre Cronnelly, Product Portfolio Manager, Esat Digifone said: "We are delighted to continue to lead the way technologically in bringing a useful, easy to use, value for money product to our customers. In bringing Brand Apollo to the Irish market, we are leading the way for our customers to benefit from advanced GSM services. This service will bring cost savings and increased efficiency and flexibility to our customers who currently use the DigiData service. This product will also assist the growth of new GSM data users which we have been predicting for some time now, and underlines our commitment to being the Business Network of Choice"