Spike inks Danish fixed-wireless deal

Spike Broadband Systems has nailed down about $300 million worth of business as its part of SONOFON’s $400 million fixed-wireless broadband deployment in Denmark.

SONOFON, a BellSouth International and Telenor company, is also Denmark’s second-largest mobile communications carrier, with about a million cellular customers. The fixed-wireless network will cover 95% of the country, delivering both telephone and data services in the 3.5 GHz licensed spectrum range.

“There are plans for up to 450,000 (Spike) CPE units over five years [and] 300 base stations to be installed within one year to cover 95% of the geography,” said Tom Bowden, Spike’s senior vice president of strategy planning and business development.

SONOFON “exemplifies the new breed of Spike customer, in that they are incumbent operators of wireless networks, knowing how to deploy wireless networks, as well as how to bill customers,” Bowden said. “They are a very sophisticated, highly professional and successful network operator.”

The Danish deal indicates there is a “strong heartbeat” for wireless services in Europe, he said. Many U.S.-based wireless vendors are looking at the international market as a savior as the U.S. market suffers through the doldrums of failing ISPs and CLECs.

“The problem with the European market has been the business case,” Bowden said.

That case has tended to be a data-only service. By adding voice to the mix “over the same equipment and implementing quality of services … it is a way to finally define the business model for broadband fixed wireless,” Bowden said.

Spike will work with systems integrator Siemens Networks on the buildout.

Bowden said Denmark is already heavily wired for telephone and cable services.

SONOFONE is “a very successful operator that is going to go in and compete with that wireline infrastructure, because there is no better way to offer broadband services than through wireless,” he said.