BellSouth launches fixed wireless broadband trial

BellSouth has launched a trial of fixed wireless broadband operating in the 2.3 GHz WCS band in two rural North Carolina counties. The trial is being conducted with Raleigh, N.C.-based America Connect, which provides wireless broadband services to end-users and transport services to carriers. It is being funded in part by the Rural Internet Access Authority, a non-profit organization that is working to bring the broadband Internet to rural parts of the state.

BellSouth has conducted similar trials in Daytona, Fla., and Houma, La. In each trial BellSouth is trying to learn how terrain, as well as interference from other signals and adjacent spectrum, would affect a fixed wireless network, according to said Mel Levine, BellSouth’s director of wireless broadband. The Houma trial, which launched about three years ago, tested a first-generation system in a flatland environment. The Daytona trial, which commenced in January 2003 and is ongoing, tested a second-generation, non-line-of-site technology in a flatland environment with heavy tree coverage.

North Carolina, given its rugged terrain, offers a comparatively unique test environment. “It’s a difficult terrain and a rural environment, so this trial will answer questions such as, how well we can reach a relatively small base of subscribers, is it economically viable and how well does it work,” Levine said. The uniqueness of the terrain is one reason America Connect was brought into the trial, as the company has experience in radio frequency engineering in the state. “They can accomplish a lot of the support functions that need to be done,” he said, given their resources in North Carolina.

BellSouth also is very interested in fixed wireless broadband services as a supplement to its wireline digital subscriber line services, said a company spokesman. “We’re looking for a tool in our toolkit that will enable us to deliver broadband to areas that we can’t cost efficiently reach today, he said.

Rural areas aren’t the sole targets, he added. BellSouth also is considering using the approach in more populated areas as an overlay strategy. “There are some areas in major cities that, for a myriad of technical reasons, where we haven’t been able to deploy DSL today,” the spokesman said.

Perhaps the biggest factor is the distance of the customer from the carrier’s central office or remote terminal, but other factors include the manner in which the copper lines are split for voice connections. Some techniques that have been used to create more voice lines in developing areas are not able to effectively transmit data traffic, said Levine.

Additionally, as more remote terminals are deployed, the potential number of subscribers that can be served off any one terminal starts to thin out, creating an economic challenge. “That makes covering those areas questionable,” Levine said.

He added that should the trial indicate it’s not economically feasible, BellSouth wouldn’t be troubled by the outcome. “It’s okay for us, in my opinion, not to be able to do an installation,” he said. “What we don’t want to do is roll a truck out there, or have customers say they want it, ship the equipment to them, and then have them find out they can’t get it.”