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IP: Wireless last-mile woes
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 09:34:09 -0500
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>[Note: This is a pretty good 'state of the union' with respect to the status of broadband wireless access today. In my opinion, the 2G NLOS systems aren't going to change this picture a bit. There is something much more fundamentally broken then just the equipment! DLH]Today's focus: Wireless last-mile woes By Joanie Wexler I find the lack of progress in the broadband wireless access service market distressing. There's a whole lot of interesting engineering activity going on at the technology and equipment level, as evidenced by last week's Wireless Communications Association 8th Technology Symposium, held in San Jose, Calif. At this event, it became apparent that there is no shortage of second-generation, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) broadband wireless access (BWA) suppliers, all touting innovative approaches to solving transmission interference/multipath and throughput issues. But from the perspective of those of us further down the food chain - the would-be consumers of commercial BWA services - I have to ask, with a nod to the late Wendy's founder Dave Thomas, "Where's the beef?" For all the activity going on, services are scarce and are getting scarcer, as some service providers are putting new customer deployments "on hold." OK, first and foremost: What actually is available? There is a smattering of BWA services here and there in a variety of spectra, some licensed, others not. But in terms of anything approaching nationwide status in this country, you've basically got first-generation Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS) offerings from WorldCom (13 markets) and Sprint (14 markets). MMDS runs in the 2.5GHz licensed band. The other primary license holder for 2.5GHz spectrum is Nucentrix Broadband Networks, which holds licenses in Texas, Oklahoma and the Midwest, but is currently serving two small markets in Texas only. At this juncture, it's most important that you know about WorldCom's MMDS services, primarily because they are the only one of the three signing on new customers. In addition, WorldCom MMDS services are aimed at businesses rather than consumers with some choices in speed and service-level agreements (SLA) for certain service components. The carrier's business services range in price from $200 to $600 per month, says Joe Brooks, VP of sales and market development for WorldCom Broadband Solutions. Brooks says the company offers service-level agreements in terms of installation time (10 business days; if you have to wait longer, you get a week's free service for each business day of delay), mean time to respond (two hours) and mean time to repair (four hours). The WorldCom service also offers three speed choices: 1) 384K bit/sec symmetric; 2) 512K bit/sec upstream and 768K bit/sec downstream; and 512K bit/sec upstream and 1M bit/sec downstream. Users can burst to 10% above their contracted speeds if network bandwidth is available. Brooks indicated that WorldCom will spend 2002 populating its existing service markets with customers and will "wait for 2G" NLOS technology before deploying a consumer service. Brooks says WorldCom is not testing any 2G equipment yet, because "what's out there is not very scalable." For its part, Sprint has deployed consumer services in 14 markets (50,000 customers); Detroit also has "business" MMDS services. The company announced in September it would cease to sign on new customers until 2G technology becomes available. Sprint VP of fixed wireless Cameron Rejali says the company has no timeline in place for deploying 2G, but that it is testing equipment with IP Wireless and other equipment makers. I've heard that Nucentrix, like Sprint, has indicated it is not signing up new customers at this juncture. Its service was based on equipment from Cisco, who abruptly exited the BWA market recently. _______________________________________________________________ To contact Joanie Wexler: Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Campbell, Calif. She can be reached at mailto:joanie () jwexler com. _____________________________________________ RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS WorldCom MMDS http://www1.worldcom.com/us/products/access/broadband/wireless/ Sprint Broadband Direct http://www.sprintbroadbanddirect.com/ Nucentrix Broadband Networks http://www.nucentrix.com/welcome/go_index.html
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- IP: Wireless last-mile woes David Farber (Jan 23)