Colubris Networks, the leading global provider of intelligent wireless LANs (WLANs) for enterprises and service providers announces the completion of a Wi-Fi guest access network deployment spanning the entire Travelodge national hotel chain, including over 330 locations in the UK and Eire. The new network was completed two months ahead of schedule by Spectrum Interactive, a Colubris Premier partner, and provides wireless high speed internet connectivity for Travelodge guests in over 20,000 rooms. The network is operated as a managed service by Spectrum Interactive.
Travelodge is one of the fastest growing hotel companies in the UK. It required a Wi-Fi solution that could be rapidly deployed to its existing hotels and was scalable to meet the demands of the company’s growth. The national rollout was completed at the rate of 44 hotel installations a month, with Travelodge’s entire UK hotel portfolio provided with Wi-Fi guest access by the end of January 2008, well before the March 2008 project deadline.
Alex Thompson, IT Director at Travelodge said; “Over 6.5 million customers use Travelodge every year and we want to ensure that we offer everything they need for a comfortable stay. Our customers are Internet savvy – in fact, 87% of them book their rooms via our website – so installing WIFI throughout our estate clearly supports their interests. The solution provided by Colubris and Spectrum Interactive gives us a secure stand-alone wireless network and we are pleased that the project has been completed ahead of schedule.”
More than 2,500 Colubris MultiService Access Points (MAPs), have been deployed in tandem with a 5000 Series MultiService Controller (MSC) at each Travelodge hotel across the country. Spectrum Interactive uses the Colubris Network Management System (NMS), a centralised management solution, to monitor and trouble-shoot the network. Colubris networking solutions are 802.11a/b/g/n compliant, which allows Travelodge to adopt the new 802.11n standard as they are ready without having to upgrade their controllers or infrastructure.
The Colubris Network Management System is a standalone WLAN management system that provides visibility of all 330 Travelodge locations from the Spectrum Interactive Network Operations Centre (NOC). Using the NMS, Spectrum Interactive can monitor every site and every user, quickly diagnose user problems and proactively monitor access and security across the whole network.
Mark Lewarne, chief executive at Spectrum Interactive said; “The Colubris intelligent networking solution met all of Travelodge’s requirements. The Colubris Network Management Solution was key in enabling Spectrum Interactive to complete Wi-Fi deployments in all 330 hotels two months ahead of the expected delivery date. Equally important is the scalability and performance as the company plans to expand to 500 hotels by 2012. As Spectrum Interactive has exclusive Wi-Fi rights for all Travelodge hotels until 2014, it was vital that the solution had this level of scalability.”
Gary Mead, vice president of international sales at Colubris said; “Network deployments of the scope and complexity delivered for Travelodge require a top-shelf service provider, like Spectrum Interactive, and Wi-Fi solutions tailored to the needs of the hospitality industry. Colubris Wi-Fi equipment is field-proven in large-scale managed service implementations and, together with our partners, we offer the solutions that hospitality organizations need to meet the general public’s expectation of simple internet access.”
