TowerStream uses fixed wireless instead of T-1 in Northeast U.S.

Fixed broadband wireless is giving TowerStream a way to compete head-to-head with wired T-1 services for small/medium business users in the company’s Boston and Rhode Island service territories. The TowerStream system, which uses Aperto Networks’ technology, overcomes obstacles that set back previous wireless efforts in the hilly, tree-lined Northeast U.S. territory, said CEO Philip Urso.

“Height is height for line-of-sight,” said Urso, repeating a company mantra. “We’re on four towers and the second tallest building in Boston, the Prudential Center.”

Aperto’s product overcomes some line-of-sight problems by delivering near-line-of-sight views for some TowerStream customers.

“We have one that’s an obstructed line-of-sight customer where you can’t see anything, but it works,” said Urso, who conceded, “line of sight is an important consideration when you’re building one of these networks.”

The TowerStream system, Urso said, works like any conventional wired T-1 offering--without the wires--and offers “an SLA that’s pretty much the same as the Verizon SLA.”

This negates cable competition, he said, because “the [cable] bandwidth is non-predictable” while TowerStream “can guarantee throughput, latency and all those types of things. We really compete in the T-1 market.”

If speed were all that counted, TowerStream would be ahead of the game. Its average bandwidth user-per-customer is 2.4 Mb/s, and subscribers can choose between packages that range from 512 kb/s to 6 Mb/s with offerings in between.

“Some big biotechnology companies are using 4 or 5 megabits right now,” Urso said.

For the most part, though, TowerStream’s goal is to compete with cable for the small/medium-sized users, in part by undercutting prices and offering fast installation times.

“We don’t have to pay every month for a wire or local loop. That certainly makes our pricing very compelling,” said Urso. “We’re not beholden to the phone company; we’re not on their schedule when we deploy service. We’re on the customer’s schedule.”

Urso is also waiting for the day that wireless consumer premises technology becomes economical enough to go into subscriber homes. Since he has the big sticks to beam down the signals, tapping into the residential market would be easy and lucrative.

For now, though, he’s really chasing the SMB market with prices that range from $350 for 512 kb/s to $499 for a T-1, $650 for 2 Mb/s and $325 per megabit after that.