U S West evaluates wireless Internet access

Qualcomm's HDR offering is one of several fixed wireless products U S West plans to evaluate as possible alternatives to digital subscriber line for high-speed Internet access. HDR offers bandwidth of up to 1.8 Mb/s using a standard 1.25 MHz code division multiple access channel.

Key goals of the testing, to begin in April, will be determining the cost-effectiveness of wireless vs. copper and how many users the system can support, said Wayne Leuck, vice president of wireless engineering technology for U S West Wireless. The carrier has no specific deployment plans and will evaluate systems that operate at various frequency bands, he said.

"Qualcomm is a strategic partner, and even if we don't choose their product, we're helping them develop it," Leuck said. Cisco Systems will also participate in the testing, providing data expertise.

HDR could have an edge with CDMA carriers, said Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm chairman and CEO. "Because [carriers] can share capabilities between voice and data, there is not as large an initial deployment cost [as for some other fixed wireless products]."

To deploy Qualcomm's offering, U S West would have to add base stations to its existing CDMA networks.

HDR is easier to install than hardwire alternatives, said Jacobs. "With HDR, [end users] can buy a modem off the shelf and plug and play."

That's a claim U S West plans to check out in its testing, Leuck said. For DSL, he said, "the biggest hurdle yet to get over is not necessarily the DSL box, but the customer's ability to make it work."

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