ERF Wireless, a provider of enterprise-class wireless broadband products and services, announced that its ERF Enterprise Network Services subsidiary has contracted with First Federal Bank of Louisiana to supply bandwidth transport across US-BankNet, ERF Wireless' new, fault-tolerant encrypted enterprise-class wireless banking network.
First Federal's seven-year US-BankNet contract, which also includes a number of renewal provisions that could extend it up to 25 years, is in addition to the $1 million BranchNet contract recently signed with the bank. While the BranchNet contract provides connectivity to First Federal's 14 branches throughout southwestern and central Louisiana, the US-BankNet contract provides for delivery of additional digital services, including fast access to key banking service providers, redundant routing across the network, IP WAN transport and access to a 50-mbps Internet gateway.
James M. Fazende, Chief Operating Officer of First Federal Bank of Louisiana, remarked, "US-BankNet, together with the fast bandwidth and interconnections it provides, is greatly needed by the banking industry as we move to adopt more complex digital applications. At First Federal Bank, we are deploying a new, all- digital mortgage application and it requires a significant amount of bandwidth to implement all of its functionality. We simply need the extra bandwidth available from ERF Wireless' US-BankNet system to make it perform the way we want it to." Fazende further noted, "Access to large amounts of bandwidth is paramount in achieving the target operating efficiencies we have set for the bank. We are also looking forward to sharing certain secure resources and high-speed gateways with other financial institutions that join US-BankNet in the future to further reduce our collective operational costs."
John Burns, CEO of ERF Enterprise Network Services, noted, "This is our first million-dollar US-BankNet contract in Louisiana. We are projecting that out of the state's 282 banks and credit unions, we'll add at least 19 more financial institutions to the Louisiana segment of our US-BankNet system over the next five years. US- BankNet will not only provide wireless connectivity, fiber gateways, video-on-demand servers for storage and retrieval of training classes, access to network storage systems, high-definition video surveillance, and a host of other products and services to participating financial institutions, it will also be the primary interconnect to a number of BranchNet encrypted high-speed networks which the company has already installed for banks around the state." Burns went on to note that ERF Wireless expects its US-BankNet sales to drive demand for the company's BranchNet, VoIPNet, ConferenceNet, SatNet and VideoNet products and services.
The first segment of US-BankNet is being implemented in Louisiana and is positioned to provide advanced digital services to virtually all financial institution operations centers throughout the state. The company is also currently targeting additional statewide networks in Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Florida and Georgia before it scales its US-BankNet system nationwide.
