IP: A fixation on fixed wireless

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
>
> [Note:  This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis.  DLH]
>
> > A fixation on fixed wireless
> >
> > Undaunted by the failures of the giants, smaller competitors rush in
> >
> > By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 2/11/2002
> > <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/042/business/A_fixation_on_fixed_wireless+.shtml>
>
> > In the quest to bring broadband Internet connections to American homes 
> > and businesses, ''fixed wireless'' systems that shoot megabits through 
> > thin, free air would seem to have huge economic advantages over rival 
> > technologies like optical fiber, cable modems, and telephone-based 
> > digital subscriber lines.
> >
> > But over the last year, fixed wireless broadband has been marked by one 
> > spectacular failure after another.
> >
> > Teligent and Winstar, two companies that spent billions trying to blanket 
> > skyscraper rooftops in Boston and other big US cities with broadband 
> > receivers, both went bankrupt after falling far short in land
> >
> > Hiawatha Bray on wireless. Page C2
> >
> > "Noon today: Chat about fixed wireless broadband with Globe reporter 
> > Peter J. Howe at www.boston.com.
> >
> > AT&T late last year walked away from its ''Project Angel'' wireless 
> > broadband service, taking a $1.3 billion accounting charge and unloading 
> > the assets for a paltry $45 million after attracting just 47,000 
> > customers. Sprint and WorldCom have both put a hold on expanding their 
> > so-called MMDS wireless broadband systems until the economics and 
> > technology improve.
> >
> > Nevertheless, a handful of smaller companies around Greater Boston, 
> > undaunted by those high-profile busts, are pressing ahead with plans to 
> > bring fixed-wireless broadband access to smaller businesses and high-tech 
> > homeowners. They are using much cheaper - and, in some analysts' view, 
> > riskier - technology that relies on the same kind of ''unlicensed'' 
> > spectrum used by baby monitors, cordless phones, and walkie-talkies.
> >
> > Companies like Galaxy Internet Services of Newton, TowerStream of 
> > Newport, R.I., Whiz Wireless in Lawrence, and Wireless Broadband Systems 
> > in Marshfield have quietly begun signing up scores of customers in recent 
> > months. They offer broadband-speed Net access at a fraction of the cost 
> > of traditional 1.5-megabit-per-second ''T1'' data lines offered by 
> > Verizon Communications, AT&T, Sprint, and WorldCom, and in some cases 
> > prices that can compete with equivalent-speed DSL and cable-modem service.
> >
> > Across the board, these companies say they are assiduously avoiding the 
> > tactical errors the big guys made and focusing on growing intelligently 
> > rather than as quickly as possible.
> >
> > ''The biggest mistake that most of these companies have made is that they 
> > spent too much money too fast,'' said Dan Metcalfe, chief executive of 
> > Wireless Broadband, which launched service in September from transmitters 
> > on the WATD radio tower in Marshfield. ''My approach is to build out the 
> > network where we need it. We can easily expand the network without having 
> > too much cost.''
> >
> > Metcalfe said he has signed up about 20 customers so far for services 
> > that include $50-a-month Internet access at 768 kilobits per second 
> > downstream and 128 seconds upstream, and packages for small and 
> > medium-sized businesses that extend up to 1 megabit each way for $500 a 
> > month, half the cost of a roughly comparable T1 line.
> >
> > Metcalfe, who had a network-installation consulting business for five 
> > years, runs the privately funded Wireless Broadband with just two 
> > part-time employees. ''If we get 500 [customers],'' he said, ''I'd 
> > consider it a good business.'' He is initially focusing on parts of 
> > Duxbury, Marshfield, and Pembroke, including many areas that have neither 
> > cable modem nor DSL access, with an eye toward expanding up the South 
> > Shore and down to Cape Cod.
> >
> > Whiz Wireless, meanwhile, has quietly amassed a network of 22 towers that 
> > company president Peter K. Butler said can cover an 1,800-square-mile 
> > area from north suburban Boston up to Rockport, Rye, N.H., and 
> > Londonderry, N.H.
> >
> > Galaxy, tapping into an existing base of more than 75,000 Internet access 
> > customers, plans a marketing blitz this month for its service offering 
> > $500-a-month T1-speed access around Route 128 - the same general area in 
> > which TowerStream has already collected more than 100 customers.
> >
> > Lindsay Schroth, a Yankee Group analyst who follows fixed wireless, said 
> > small companies like these enjoy one clear advantage over bigger players 
> > that spent hundreds of millions to get ''spectrum'' licenses from the 
> > Federal Communications Commission.
> >
> > ''The return on investment is much quicker if you don't have to pay 
> > back'' the license fees, Schroth said. And targeted to the right kinds of 
> > markets where cable modem and DSL service is sparse, she said, ''It's a 
> > pretty good solution if you can't get broadband any other way.''
> >
> > One challenge facing the fixed wireless industry, however, is AT&T 
> > Broadband's steady expansion of business-oriented cable modem service, 
> > now in 64 Boston area cities and towns.
> >
> > That service, for $100 to $300 a month, can typically offer more 
> > bandwidth than the wireless players. And while it complains regulation is 
> > chilling the market, Verizon Communications plans to extend DSL coverage 
> > to 70 percent of Massachusetts by year's end.
> >
> > Some industry executives say the biggest potential problem for newer, 
> > smaller entrants is their reliance on unlicensed spectrum available to 
> > anyone who wants to use it - airwave space that, in some cases, is 
> > literally vulnerable to debilitating interference from leaky microwave ovens.
> >
> > ''The risk is that a competitor can put up a similar system and bring 
> > your whole system down'' with colliding microwave traffic, said Jack 
> > Davis, president of Sideband Systems Inc., a Beverly company that 
> > specializes in building private microwave networks using FCC-licensed 
> > spectrum for clients such as Partners HealthCare and the state of Rhode 
> > Island. ''Would you do it? I wouldn't.''
> >
> > Davis still recalls with heartache having to give up a $10,000 contract 
> > in 1992 when he could not get a wireless network using unlicensed 
> > spectrum to work in Boston.
> >
> > He said he thinks potential interference is a much smaller issue in areas 
> > farther away from Boston, but still, ''we think it is a major concern and 
> > a major flaw with using unlicensed spectrum.''
>
> <snip>

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/