Vindication just in time

For the better part of a decade, Shant Hovnanian was a lone voice, telling anyone who would listen that voice, data and video could be transmitted simultaneously over a wireless platform. His toughest critic, the FCC, was finally won over when it allowed Hovnanian's company, CellularVision, to use reallocated spectrum to prove its point.

It wasn't until this year, though, that Hovnanian showed the market that he was right, as CellularVision began providing Internet access service using the local multipoint distribution services spectrum.

Until that point, the company, where Hovnanian is CEO, had been providing cable TV service to about 14,000 customers in Brooklyn. Since then, the company has made inroads into the Manhattan market with some limited Internet service. More important, CellularVision is providing the blueprint for other carriers as they prepare to bid on 493 licenses in the 28 and 31 GHz bands beginning Feb. 18.

Like most potential bidders, the company is holding its plans close to the vest, but Hovnanian admits the company probably won't enter the auctions alone.

"What we're doing is looking for strategic marketing partners," he says. The company also is licensing its technology platform and management expertise to other bidders.

"We realize we have to go after different markets with different products," says Hovnanian. "You'll see things like high-speed data for the [small office/home office] market in Manhattan, basic cable for Brooklyn and some advanced TV service for higher-end customers in Manhattan."

Cutting its teeth in the residential Internet access market has been good preparation for the business rollout because it forced the company to put together packages that appealed to value-conscious customers, Hovnanian says.

"We seem to have addressed a niche. It's a price-sensitive market in New York, especially in Brooklyn. We think 1998 is going to be a banner year."