Flying under the radar

The big boys of the new wireless industry have spoken. AT&T Wireless, PrimeCo, Sprint PCS, Vodafone. Big, strapping bucks that made one or more muscle-bound power plays in the last year: One-rate plans, digital broadcast services, marketing blitzkriegs, acquisitions.

But what's that sound? Tiny gears and motors humming, like a model plane buzzing by at a lower altitude. It's a strata of small digital wireless carriers, mostly C and F block PCS licensees. Thought you'd never hear from them again, right?

They probably weren't so sure themselves. High license costs made a good number of them drop out of attack formation. But others are still flying, trying to stay under the radar of bigger competition. They're using lower-cost infrastructure to make it work.

"I couldn't afford a traditional infrastructure," says Ron Strecker, prez, CEO and chief Texan at Panhandle Communications. "I had to find a cheaper entry level, or else I would have to wait to deploy my network when infrastructure prices came down."

Cheaper, but not "cheap," understand? Small carriers are no more willing than others to sacrifice reliable reputations for bargain networks. They need a low-overhead architecture that somehow isn't made of Lincoln Logs.

Waiting isn't an option either. Strecker: "It's an early-bird-gets-the-worm type of thing." And birds that aren't early get a face full of dirt. To coin a phrase.

This creates an entry for vendors that can make low overhead but high performance work. It's a doorway too small for most infrastructure vendors, but a few can fit just fine. Vendors such as AirNet Communications, Tecore, Telos Engineering, Samsung-all catering to smaller network operators.

"These carriers need something that's a lesser capital risk. A low-cost, initial coverage solution that can be installed in a few months and position them well for expansion later on," says Lee Hamilton, prez and CEO at AirNet.

AirNet provides GSM-based base station equipment, including the AirSite Backhaul-Free Base Station. This product in particular has caught the eye of many small PCS providers. It reuses existing spectrum from a base station to interconnect it with other base stations or switches. The past alternative: Backhauling through costly T-1 wireline links or inconvenient microwave paths.

The cost discrepancy is stark. Southeast Telephone of Kentucky initially used the AirSite to cut its backhaul costs from $56,000 per month to $8000, says prez Darrell Maynard. He looked at several other solutions but says most vendors didn't realized the big financial impact wireless backhaul could have on the business model of a rural carrier.

Strecker didn't have his own numbers handy but knew the cost savings were big. Carolina PCS is saving $100,000 per month more than what it would have saved with wireline backhaul. Pinpoint Communications in Nebraska will use what it saved to fund its long-term network expansion.

Strecker again: "I was looking long term at keeping operational costs down." The backhaul savings was a closer.

The case is hardly worth arguing.

But here's something to contend: Why GSM? Granted, it's the international standard, and 100 million or so users can't be wrong. However, GSM doesn't offer a small carrier much chance at joining a national technology fabric-as CDMA does.

No bother. These carriers just want to get to market. They want to serve their communities and aren't all that concerned with a bigger picture. That's why they bought fractional market licenses in the first place.

"When a national GSM fabric eventually fills in, we'll fit nicely into that," says Maynard.

While AirNet has specialized in GSM systems so far, Samsung's PicoBTS delivers CDMA coverage for a small operator with bigger aspirations.

Of course, the outlying network isn't the only place to go low overhead. Switches represent the most expensive elements in any network, so much so that vendors have long been pushing alternatives to Big Iron-mostly programmable switches and digital cross-connects.

Now, Tecore and Telos have something else: Less expensive digital switches with better port efficiency and more software-defined call processing flexibility.

The smaller switches support most of the service features larger ones do, meet any digital air interface and are easier to deploy and re-deploy.

"Any vendor could do what we're doing, but most of them have gone another way," says Telos prez Jack Mar.

With both small switches and low-brow base station platforms available, it doesn't take long to figure out what the ultimate low-cost infrastructure would include. To this end, AirNet has interface agreements with both Tecore and Telos. "That gives you the best low-cost configuration, less-expensive equipment and cheaper backhaul from base station to base station and switch to switch," says AirNet's Hamilton.

Such network architectures make you think twice about small-market life being old hat. They represent the network as much as anything being deployed in larger markets. "Everything is done in the software [spectrum reuse, switching, call processing]. All the bandwidth is digitized. It's an elegant solution," says Hamilton.

All this talk about efficient, cost-effective infrastructure is enticing-even if you're not a small carrier. After all, everybody likes a good deal. At least that's what AirNet is hoping, says Hamilton. AirNet would like to start moving up-market a bit, get a name among the bigger A and B block carriers. These are the ones that haven't had to worry about extinction, but AirNet believes the low-overhead play might be viable for big carriers trying to expand their networks smartly.

Hamilton: "We'll point to all our existing deals as proof that it will work." It will also point to its third interface partnership, with a little switch maker called Nortel. Sneaking in through the side door, so to speak. There's that buzzing sound again.