FairPoint uses fixed wireless for rural last mile access

FairPoint Communications may have Verizon’s landlines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, but it won’t necessarily be able to use all of them to deliver broadband access. The operator is therefore using new broadband wireless technologies to reach rural and far-flung customers beyond DSL’s reach.

The company said this week it has contracted with Nortel Networks and Airspan Networks to build a broadband wireless network that can extend home Internet access services to hard-to-reach homes and small business in the three states in which FairPoint acquired Verizon’s assets. Unlike other operators such as Clearwire and Sprint offering mobile WiMAX services, FairPoint is using mobile WiMAX’s fixed wireless predecessor based on the IEEE’s 802.16d standard. Fixed WiMAX doesn’t have the advanced antenna technologies and other bells and whistles of mobile WiMAX, which is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard, but it supports FairPoint’s basic requirement: broadband connectivity over a fixed link.

FairPoint will build the network over 3.65 GHz spectrum, a band recently approved by the FCC for quasi-unlicensed use. While operators do not need to own a license to use the band in any given market, they have to register each base station they launch, creating a first-come-first-service approach to the market. Operators like Nth Air and Towerstream have been using the spectrum to launch metro-area broadband wireless networks to supply broadband to small businesses, but FairPoint is one of the first to use the spectrum for residential service.

The FairPoint deal is Nortel and Airspan’s first collaboration in the US, though the two have had an OEM relationship since 2005. Nortel chose to forego development of its own fixed WiMAX line and partnered with Airspan to resell its base station and customer premise equipment in foreign markets using the 3.5 GHz licensed band. When the FCC opened the 3.65 GHz band, though, it created an opportunity for companies like Airspan and Redline to enter the US market, allowing them to sell essentially the same equipment they offer overseas.