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Fixed broadband wireless is moving forward as vendors garner new contracts and deliver new and improved products offering more bandwidth and additional features.
License-exempt wireless ISPs (WISPs) quickly are becoming a bigger factor in the overall broadband picture, reports research firm In-Stat/MDR. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Cal.) and George Allen (R-Va.) have co-introduced a measure that calls upon FCC to allocate increased spectrum to be made available for license-exempt fixed wireless broadband systems. Clearly, interest in fixed broadband wireless is moving beyond just technology enthusiasts. In-Stat/MDR estimates there are 1,500-1,800 license-exempt WISPs in the United States. Worldwide end user revenue generated from infrastructure in the license-exempt WISP market is forecast to be $265.2 million for 2002.
Fixed wireless systems always have been lauded for their relatively quick deployment time and low cost, compared with wireline networks that require digging or overhead stringing. They also can reach areas that might not be readily accessible using other technologies.
While earlier, high-frequency fixed wireless technology used by wireless CLECs Teligent Inc. and WinStar LLC (operating in licensed spectrum) has fallen out of favor, it became clear last year that fixed wireless is far from being a dead issue. As companies search for last-mile broadband solutions, fixed wireless systems operating at lower frequency, typically unlicensed, spectrum, have taken root in hundreds of localities around the world.
A major deployment in Jacksonville, Fla., by Clearwire Technologies Inc. is just one example on this front. Using UMTS nonline-of-sight technology from IPWireless Inc., Clearwire offers high-speed Internet access to business and residential users that couldn't otherwise get the service through DSL or cable modem. The network, which operates at 2.5GHz, is expected to to serve at least 1 million Jacksonville residents.
"This is a major step forward for the broadband industry in the United States," says Claudia Bacco, president of researching and consulting firm TeleChoice Inc. "For broadband wireless to emerge as a legitimate competitor to DSL and cable, it has to go where these wired technologies cannot in terms of coverage and convenience for businesses and consumers. With Clearwire's launch, many businesses and consumers that have been broadband-deprived now will have an option available to them. Those users that have been waiting for a portable, and eventually mobile, broadband connection also will have a solution available to them via broadband wireless."
Leo Cyr, Clearwire's president and COO, says about 20 percent of residential customers in Jacksonville had no access to high-speed Internet, and up to 50 percent of local businesses could not access DSL.
In another recent major deployment, Gold Mind Telecom Co. Ltd. is installing Aperto Networks' 5.8GHz PacketWave point-to-multipoint systems in China's Shanxi Province. Gold Mind will use fixed broadband wireless operating at 3.5GHz and 5.8GHz as the primary mode to provide access and deliver custom content developed by Gold Mind for schools in the community, the area's mining and energy production industry and government offices in the city of Shahe.
This year the service provider expects to build a subscriber base of thousands of users in this initial market alone. Services will include high-speed Internet access and LAN extension, voice over IP, distance-learning applications, video-conferencing, virtual private networks and streaming media.
"Our goal was to make IT available to everyday people in China," Gold Mind's President and CEO Jack Chu tells xchange. Barely 4 percent of the Chinese population has Internet access, notes Chu, who also leads the Wireless Communications Association's China Broadband Wireless Access Task Force.
Fixed wireless is being used to bring high-speed Internet access and other services to end users, but it can also meet service providers' network needs for such things as low-cost cellular and Wi-Fi hotspot backhaul.
Aperto's systems are deployed in more than 22 countries, says Alan Menezes, vice president of marketing. The equipment company also recently brought to market a point-to-point broadband fixed wireless product for the 5GHz spectrum. Its systems, which offer a feature called dynamic per-subscriber link optimization to deliver quality of service, are aimed at service providers targeting business users. While one-third of Aperto's business is based in the United States, the company is the supplier for nationwide networks operated in Poland, and Trinidad and Tobago.
As more service providers realize the benefits of broadband fixed wireless and add customers to their systems, they are feeling the need for more bandwidth, says Carlton O'Neal, vice president of marketing with equipment supplier Alvarion Ltd., which claims to have more broadband fixed wireless units installed in the world than all other vendors in the market.
To meet the bandwidth demand, Alvarion recently came out with the new BreezeACCESS non-line-of-sight orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-based solution for the 5GHz frequency bands. The card fits into Alvarion's existing system that has traditionally operated in the 2.4GHz band.
"We have a couple thousand links running in the United States in the unlicensed band," says O'Neal. However, carriers are running out of unlicensed capacity in the popular 2.4GHz band, so many are expanding to 5GHz. What's more, while 2.4GHz offers about 3mbps per channel, the 5.8GHz band offers a much healthier chunk of bandwidth, at about 54mbps per channel. O'Neal says, "Our customers want 5.8GHz spectrum because they've been widely successful. New spectrum means new opportunities and new companies."
Gold Mind is using fixed wireless technology from Aperto Networks to serve the "rural" city of Shahe in China.
