Her Royal Highness Princess 'Azemah Ni'matul Bolkiah officiated the launching of the joint venture between Rafiqun Information Telecommunications Services (RITS) and Wireless Design System International (WDSI) and their new product called 'BRUMESH'.

Accompanying HRH Princess 'Azemah Ni'matul Bolkiah during the event that took place at the iCentre in Berakas yesterday was HRH Princess Fadzilah Lubabul Bulqiah.

The ceremony began with a welcoming remark by Dato Timothy Ong, the Acting Chairman of the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB).

In a speech by Awang Haji Mohd Rahimin bin Pehin Orang Kaya Datu Indera Setia Diraja Brigadier General (R) Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Aziz, the executive director of Rafiqun Information Telecommunication Services (RITS), he said that RITS is a locally-operated company established in Brunei Darussalam with Info-Communication Technology (ICT) as its core business.

Awang Haji Mohd Rahimin shared the transition of the joint venture between RITS and Wireless Design System International (WDSI), a United Kingdom company that has the same core with the company.

Rafiqun Information Telecommunications Services (RITS) has an office at the iCentre and its daily operations are carried out by Bruneians with the back-up of WDSI, whose people will come to Brunei Darussalam whenever their presence and expertise are required.

He said that the iCentre has been the perfect breeding ground for a small ICT company such as RITS, where innovation and creativity are always nurtured in line with the motto of the centre.

The executive director of RITS also said that the support from the Brunei Economic Development Board has helped them to improve in every aspect of their ICT Business, especially to have faith and allow them to think big and express themselves.

In his speech, Mr Andy Coney, the executive director of WDSI, who is also the co-founder, said that WDSI is a company that develops and consults on the next generation wireless hardware and software technology.

Mr Coney said the company has established itself in Europe as a provider of consultancy and network design to Internet service providers, mobile phone carriers and municipal authorities.

During the event, HRH Princess 'Azemah Ni'matul Bolkiah also received a 'pesambah' and greetings from the 13 incubates of the iCentre prior to leaving the ceremony.

Also present during the event were high-ranking officials from various government departments, foreign dignitaries as well as a number of local business community members and the iCentre incubates.

BRUMESH, an IP based mesh solution was an award-winning product at the inaugural 'Think Big Business Plan' competition organised by BEDB recently.

The products and services will be used to develop ISP services from bringing private and public hotspots at home, work and leisure.

The objective is to create a complete end-to-end solution for high coverage with low cost deployment and maintenance.

It is a combination of propriety routing software and hardware that creates a multi-hop mesh network in micro site WLANs and best described as a self-healing, intelligent routing and self-organising technology that is easily deployed.

The benefits of using such technology is that it increases WLAN area coverage to 98 per cent, it allows WLANs to be deployed in rural areas with confidence, its lowers the capital expenditure on WLANs, it self-healing, intelligent routing ensures connectivity always.

Other technical benefits that can be gained are it can adapt to change of node relocation, removal or failure, compatible with roaming mesh devices - cars, PDAs, mobiles - lower power transmissions and greater traffic balancing. It is also compatible with all Wi-Fi devices.

According to Ak Isa Pg Hj Mohd Noor, the managing director at RITS, the BRUMESH products would be in the local market by the next couple of months with a number of vendors already expressing their interest for the product. - Borneo Bulletin (11th Mar 2009)