Lucent pursues wireless IP data: Stake in WaveAccess is starting block for new services

Lucent will chase Internet protocol-based delivery of fixed data and voice with a $6 million investment for a 20% stake in WaveAccess.

"[WaveAccess] has a fair amount of technology around packet radio and how that connects to the Internet," said Nitin J. Shah, data networking vice president for Lucent's wireless networks group. "We were looking for a company that had experience in that area."

The move continues Lucent's recent practice of tapping into new technologies through investments in smaller companies.

Lucent hopes to incorporate some of the technology that WaveAccess has developed into future solutions, but Shah would not expand on potential products. He did say that the future products will aim to offer wireless high data rate services primarily in fixed environments to small business and residential customers.

The WaveAccess technology that Lucent will use operates in low licensed frequencies such as the PCS 1900 MHz range.

"It's a way for Lucent to supply infrastructure to allow carriers to take advantage of bandwidth," said Allan Scott, vice president of sales and marketing for the Americas at WaveAccess.

Data offers an application for unused spectrum, said Becky Diercks, senior director of telecommunications research at Business Research Group. "There are so many carriers that have excess capacity now that aren't taking advantage of data possibilities," she said.

The technology also could operate in unlicensed frequencies and although designed for fixed locations, could be modified for mobile environments.

WaveAccess technology is cheaper to deploy than existing wireline solutions and can bypass the local exchange carrier, offering a local loop solution. "Once you establish a pipeline into a residence...you can supply other value-added services," Scott said.

The technology is more efficient because it reconstructs incomplete packets rather than retransmitting them. The result is 3.2 megabits per channel throughput vs. a typical 1.6, he said.