News and Updates
RI-WINs Wireless Project Wraps Up Pilot
The Business Innovation Factory recently reported the successful conclusion of the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) pilot program. The pilot was an important part of the project's effort to build the nation's first border-to-border broadband wireless network. [ more ]
RI-WINs Initiative Highlighted in The Providence Phoenix
The positive press continues for Rhode Island's bid to become the first state with border-to-border broadband wireless coverage. The Providence Phoenix reported on the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks project in the May 23 edition, providing an overview and featuring supporters of the initiative. [ more ]
Caprio Partners with RI-WINs to Show Benefits of Border-to-Border Broadband Wireless Network for R.I.
Rhode Island General Treasurer Frank Caprio announced his support for the statewide rollout of the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks, an effort to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with a border-to-border wireless broadband network. In addition to pledging support, Caprio is putting the network to the test, making his the first executive office to directly use the RI-WINs network. [ more ]
RI-WINs Wireless Project Announces Plan for Statewide Rollout
The Business Innovation Factory today announced its plans for statewide rollout of the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs), an effort to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with a border-to-border broadband network. Plans for statewide expansion are based on results from the project's piloting phase, an eight month period during which users tested applications on a small scale version of the network, and a market research study which included an operating model and pro forma financial analysis, performed by Altman & Vilandrie, a Boston-based telecommunications consulting firm. [ more ]
BIF Named Finalist for Wireless Award
BIF was in good company this week when its Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) project was selected as a finalist for the second annual W2i Wireless Communities Best Practices Award. RI-WINs, a project to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with a border-to-border broadband wireless network, shared nomination honors with wireless projects in Sweden, Taiwan, Ohio, Paris, South Africa, Spain, Texas, Philadelphia, Mexico and France. [ more ]
RI-WINs Boosts Rhode Island's Ranking for Wireless Investment
Rhode Island has been ranked #1 in the nation for state investment inwireless technologies in CDW-G recent State & Local GovernmentTechnology Investment Curve (TIC) report. The TIC looked at technologyinvestment and profiled comparative programs, approaches andinformation technology best practices from each state. Chief among theinvestments cited by CDW-G is BIF's Rhode Island Wireless InnovationNetworks (RI-WINs), a project of the Business Innovation Factory (BIF)to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with aborder-to-border mobile broadband network. [ more ]
RI-WINs Meets the "Geeks"
From the outside, it could have been any group of young professionals gathered to hear a presentation at a hip downtown space. But once you went inside, you knew. These were geeks. Real geeks. And they were interested in the prospect of a border-to-border wireless network. [ read more ]
Wireless Network Flips Switch, Pilot Welcomes First Users
Normally, when something in your computer makes a clicking sound, its cause for concern. Not so for field operatives from CVS/pharmacy and the Rhode Island Department of Health, who heard the satisfying "click" of wireless modems being snapped into their computers on June 19, putting them among the first wave of users to access the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) pilot network. [ read more ]
RI-WINs Gets International Attention
Buzz about the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) - BIF's effort to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with mobile border-to-border broadband wireless - spread internationally last week when news outlets across the U.S. and as far away as Malaysia picked up on the story. [ read more ]
IBM Takes Lead in Rhode Island Wireless Pilot Project
The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) announced today that BIF member IBM, a global leader in building and integrating information systems, will expand its role in the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) partnership by serving as project manager of the RI-WINs pilot, the second phase of an effort to make Rhode Island the first state in the country with border-to-border broadband wireless coverage. [ read more ]
RI-WINS Joins Port Security Partnership
The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) has partnered in a unique port security communications demonstration project funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Under a contract awarded to Smiths Detection Systems, BIF will partner with a team of communications and security experts, including Raytheon, Stonecrop Technologies, and Newport-based LiveWave, to create a wireless broadband communications network. The network will allow government agencies and emergency personnel to share and distribute and use real-time text, voice, and video data.ork in Narragansett Bay. [ read more ]
Editorial: RI-WINs Heralds Cooperation
On November 17, the Business Innovation Factory announced that global leader IBM was expanding its role in the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) partnership, an effort to make Rhode Island the first state with a border-to-border broadband wireless network. Even better, IBM's arrival triggered the formal launch of the RI-WINs pilot, a small-scale test to check the network's effectiveness and demonstrate how a statewide wireless network could benefit a spectrum of public- and private-sector users. Published in the November 28, 2005 Providence Journal [ read more ]
Feasibility and Business Model Development Study
This report summarizes the results of a study conducted by the Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks™ (RI-WINs), a project of the Business Innovation Factory™, to evaluate the economic and technological feasibility of making Rhode Island the first state in the country with border-to-border broadband wireless. Study results indicate that there is sufficient market demand to support the RIWINs operational model, and that Rhode Island's compact geography and existing telecommunication assets will mediate the costs of creating a state-wide network. [ download the RI-WINs feasibility study ]
Robert Panoff: Trailblazing a Path to Collaborative Innovation
In 2003, Bob Panoff, Principal of RPM, a Massachusetts-based IT consulting firm, presented a big idea to the Business Innovation Factory: to create the nation's first statewide border-to-border wireless network. By offering a unified, statewide platform for wireless services, Panoff envisioned a "network of networks" that would stimulate economic development and become a focal point for innovative applications for companies in and outside Rhode Island as well as provide new markets for users and providers. [ read more ]