Open Range taps Alvarion for rural WiMax network

Open Range Communications has been breaking new ground with its rural WiMax deployments, announcing in the last year innovative new ways to build a broadband network in the remotest communities in the US. Instead of purchasing its own spectrum, Open Range partnered with Globalstar (NASDAQ:GSAT) to use its satellite spectrum for its new WiMax deployment. It then tackled the problem of backhaul capacity by working with Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ:LVLT) to tap into the fiber lines traversing its markets to supply high-capacity transport. The only thing Open Range hadn’t done was announce a WiMax vendor, an oversight corrected today with a $100-million contract awarded to Israeli equipment supplier Alvarion.

Over the next five years, Alvarion will deploy its BreezeMax gear throughout Open Range’s 546-rural-market footprint, spanning 17 states and 6 million people. The WiMax component will be supplemented with Globalstar’s satellite broadband network: Where WiMax can’t reach, Globalstar will fill in the gaps and vice versa. As part of their arrangement, Open Range will use Globalstar’s ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) spectrum in the 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz range. The FCC has allowed satellite operators like Globalstar to use their spectrum to transmit both from orbit and from space in order to overcome the barriers buildings present to satellite signals. Different providers are doing different things with the spectrum—Craig McCaw’s ICO Global is deploying a mobile TV network, while TerreStar is augmenting satellite broadband with high-speed packet access (HSPA)—but Globalstar is farming out its entire terrestrial component to Open Range.

While Alvarion will be deploying its standard BreezeMax IEEE 802.16e gear for the deployment, it will have to tweak it specifically for the ATC frequencies’ unique characteristics. The spectrum is adjacent to the 2.5 GHz band over which Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) and other US operators are deploying their mobile WiMax networks, but because of its proximity to the unlicensed 2.4 GHz bands used for WiFi, Alvarion and other vendors must program special filters into their base station and customer premise equipment to avoid interference, said Tzvika Friedman, CEO and president of Alvarion.

While devices might not be supported off the shelf, any software adjustments will be minimal, Friedman said, and eventually chip makers may embed the software directly into their platforms.

As for the satellite component, chips may be available sooner rather than later to support devices moving in between the WiMax and orbital networks. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) has announced an initiative to create dual-mode satellite-cellular chipsets for devices on ICO and TerreStar’s hybrid networks. While Qualcomm has not specifically indicated that WiMax-satellite chips are in its roadmap, dual-mode WiMax is definitely in its plans.

For Alvarion, the Open Range deal is the second it has landed funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS). At CTIA Wireless, Alvarion announced a similar rural deployment with Main Street Broadband, which netted $34 million in RUS funding, but Open Range’s project is by far larger, garnering a $267-million loan from the program as well as $100 million in private funding. Friedman said both projects could potentially become much bigger if they secure broadband stimulus funding later this year.