Aperto Networks announced today that France Telecom is using Aperto's PacketWave 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access gear to create portable broadband wireless networks at the Tour de France media village as it moves from stage to stage. You can see Aperto PacketWave antennas atop many mobile television production trucks such as the one operated by Digi TV Mobiltelevision [ cycling production photos ], shown here in the media village at the end of a recent stage.

Update: Several television networks are using the PacketWave network, including TV2, OLN, ZDF, and France 2. Journalists from the Associated Press are also participating.

Aperto Networks is a provider of broadband wireless access equipment to telecommunications companies throughout the world. Its products are in use in a major wireless IP trial in the Brittany region of France and a fixed network under development in the Parkersburg, West Virginia area, to name just two high-profile projects. The Tour de France effort is confirmation of France Telecom's faith in the reliability of Aperto's wireless infrastructure gear. [ photo courtesy of Aperto Networks ]