Rural Data That Rips

BellSouth is testing whether wireless makes sense for delivering the high-speed Internet access enjoyed by some urbanites to their customers in rural areas.

The first test is set to begin early this year in Houma, LA, about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. About one dozen customers will get modems and wireless receivers to download information from the Internet at 1.5Mb/s, which is about 50 to 100 times faster than a current wireline Internet connection. The test gives BellSouth an opportunity to assess the economic and technical feasibility of using wireless to offer high-speed data access to its most remotely located customers, the company said.

To conduct the trial, BellSouth is partnering with ADC Telecommunications, which is providing its CellSpan Broadband Wireless Access system. CellSpan provides high-speed, 2-way data, voice and videoconferencing services over multipoint distribution service, wireless communications service (WCS), and multichannel multipoint distribution service spectrum. Test participants will send information to the Internet via standard landline technologies.

"Broadband wireless is uniquely suited to expand access to the Internet to all sectors of society," said William J. Cadogan, ADC president & CEO.

BellSouth's rural customers traditionally haven't had access to high-speed connections via mediums such as ADSL because of infrastructure build-out costs. The rural trial is being conducted over the WCS spectrum that BellSouth purchased through a FCC auction. The carrier announced the test last month in Washington at the "Digital Divide Summit," a meeting of leaders from technology industries, government, the civil-rights community and community organizations that was chaired by Commerce Secretary William Daley.