MMDS decisions loom

If you’re a decision-maker from Sprint Broadband Wireless Group (www.sprintbroadband.com) or WorldCom Broadband Solutions (www.worldcom.com), attending a wireless trade show is like being a member of NSync and walking through a crowd of teenage girls. Except, of course, the vendors just lust after your business.

Both companies are testing second-generation equipment now and looking forward to offering service without line-of-sight limitations and customer-premise equipment that can be self-installed. When they do select vendors, the chosen few will face a rosier future.

Some good NLOS solutions are out there, according to Andy Fuertes, Allied Business Intelligence (www.alliedworld.com) analyst, and they should emerge from testing around the end of the year. It’s not clear yet which ones will prevail, he said. Although there is suspicion from some quarters that Sprint and WorldCom may be hoarding their MMDS spectrum in the hope of using it for mobile services someday, Fuertes thinks this is untrue. Sprint has said it doesn't need additional spectrum (for 3G).

“I believe them,” Fuertes said, adding that existing cellular carriers would do everything in their power to keep Sprint and WorldCom from using that spectrum for mobile services.

But Sprint and WorldCom do need to get into the local loop, he said. “That’s the strategic high ground.”

Although neither is using MMDS to offer voice along with data at this point, he’d be surprised if they don’t eventually go in that direction just as AT&T is doing now with its fixed-wireless broadband offering.

World Com has MMDS licenses covering more than 31 million households nationwide in more than 160 markets, but is offering wireless broadband service only in a few markets.

In June, WorldCom launched fixed-wireless MMDS service in Chattanooga, TN, to be followed by Bakersfield, CA. Other locations for existing service are Memphis, TN; Jackson, MS; and Baton Rouge, LA.

WorldCom continues to offer MMDS services to businesses rather than the residential market, and its launches thus far have proved that this is the correct focus, said Michael Barnes, WorldCom Broadband Solutions product marketing director. He said customers are pleased with the service provided.

“It’s a simple value proposition,” Barnes said. WorldCom can get business-grade service up and running in less than five days; often less than 48 hours.

He also noted that customers do care about the technology because of the QoS issues. WorldCom is offering services such as VPNs and commercial-grade Web hosting.

The company has identified new markets that include Kansas City, MO, Dothan, AL, and Minneapolis.

Barnes said markets such as Dothan are particularly attractive because businesses there have no alternatives to wireless.

Although the company plans rollouts in at least eight other markets in the next three to four months, it continues to test new technology. Barnes believes non-line-of-sight (NLOS) solutions are not commercially viable yet.

“Technology (for fixed-wireless broadband) still is very nascent,” he said.

Barnes also said that a VoIP product should be available this summer, but voice was “not a major thrust.”

Sprint Broadband, with MMDS/instructional-TV-fixed-service licenses in 90 markets, has been more active in its launches, operating now in 14 markets using first-generation line-of-sight technology and serving residences and businesses. Most recently Sprint announced the expansion of its Houston service area. Previously limited to an 18.6-mile radius of downtown Houston, the service area has FCC approval to expand to a 35-mile radius.

Last week Sprint ordered $9.3 million in routers and base-station equipment from Hybrid, bringing its total orders with Hybrid to more than $30 million.

Although it's still building super cells with first-generation equipment, Sprint is testing second-generation equipment in Seattle. Third-biggest MMDS carrier Nucentrix Broadband Networks (www.nucentrix.com) announced in June it has FCC approval to deploy 2-way, high-speed Internet, data and voice service in 57 of its markets across Texas. Oklahoma and the Midwest. Already offering service in several Texas markets, Nucentrix soon will select a long-term technology platform and secure financing for network deployment, according to Carroll McHenry, chairman & CEO, who is pleased with the recent FCC decision to extend the build-out deadline for most BTAs from August 2001 to August 2003.

Wireless broadband is a legitimate competitor to cable-modem and DSL technologies with the potential of grabbing 20% to 30% of the world’s broadband subscribers, according to a study Fuertes authored. In the licensed arena below 10GHz, subscribers are predicted to go from 0.1 million in 2000 to 13.6 million by 2006.

In the meantime, unlicensed operators are spearheading the deployment of fixed-wireless broadband and should approach 7 million subscribers by yearend 2006. Fuertes calls this the “poor man’s way to establish broadband access.”

Operators in the 900MHz, 2.4GHz and the 5GHz to 6GHz bands can get into the market quickly because they don’t need to deal with licenses and are able to make a profit with relatively low penetration, he said, sometimes within 12 months of initial rollout.These are the small operators.

“They’re out to conquer a county, rather than a state or a region,” Fuertes said.

North American Deployments

Wireless-broadband deployments over the past two months include the following:

Craig Wireless International through its subsidiary, SkyCable (www.skycable.com), launched high-speed broadband Internet service for farms and other small-business customers in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Boyd Craig, Craig Wireless International president, said his company is dedicated to providing rural customers the same Internet and data services available in urban areas. SkyCable is using Vyyo (www.vyyo.com) equipment in Manitoba. NextWeb (www.nextweb.com), an ISP operating in the San Francisco Bay area, is beta testing Aperto Network’s (www.apertonet.com) PacketWave system, which operates in the 5.3GHz and 5.8GHz bands. The tests include IP functions and network-management features. NextWeb is offering Internet access as well as VPN and 2-way videoconferencing to businesses.

TowerStream Networks (www.towerstream.com), provider of high-speed Internet access to small and medium-size businesses, has expanded into eight new England markets and plans to serve all major new England cities by the end of 2002. It has selected Cisco’s (www.cisco.com) WY2750 Multipoint Broadband Wireless System with next-generation OFDM technology.

TradeWinds Network Services, a division of TradeWinds Communications (www.tradewindscommunications.com), a turnkey telecommunications company, will deploy Radiant Networks’ (www. radiantnetworks.com) Mesh technology in selected LMDS license areas in Virginia and adjacent states. Radiant will supply systems to TradeWinds that will be evaluated by LMDS license holders. The systems will deliver broadband services to commercial and residential subscribers, including video-conferencing, video-on-demand, high-speed Internet access, voice and other e-business initiatives.

W.A.T.C.H. TV (www.watchtv.com), an Ohio carrier with 10,000 video customers, contracted with Andrew (www.andrew.com) to construct wireless broadband systems using MMDS frequencies. Andrew’s system will use Vyyo modem termination equipment to serve residences and businesses.

International Deployments

Beeline Service–Samara, a subsidiary of VimpelCom (www.vimplecom.com), the largest mobile operator in Russia, will use the Airspan(www.airspan.com) AS4000 wireless DSL system to deliver high-speed Internet services to customers in Samara and later to the nearby city of Toliatti.

Pacnet, a wireless Internet service provider serving the northwestern region of Mexico, is trialing Harris’ (www.harris.com) ClearBurst MB point-to-multipoint digital radio systems in Tijuana. Commercial service, following a successful trial, should begin this fall in Tijuana and later in Ensenada, Mexicali and Rosarito. Pacnet uses spectrum leased from Miditel (www.miditel.com) and operates at 10.5GHz.

Pronet Communications is installing Aperto’s PacketWave pilot system in Poland. It includes a mix of commercial and public-sector locations and is expected to grow its base by 20 locations per month into 2002. Aperto’s solution works in the 5.8GHz frequency.

Sonofon (www.sonofon.dk), Denmark’s second largest mobile communications carrier, is working with Spike Broadband Systems (www.spike.com) to create a fixed-wireless broadband network in the 3.5GHz frequency band. The deployment will be over the next five years and is expected to reach 95% of Denmark’s population. Spike will build the fixed-broadband network infrastructure during the first two years. Applications will include broadband data and video, VoIP, fax over IP, video on demand and content filtering along with Web hosting and design services. Sonofon is a BellSouth International (www. bellsouth.com/international) and Telenor (www.telenor.no) company.

Norwegian telecommunications carrier Telenor will use Alcatel's (www.alcatel.com) LMDS solution in existing and potential Telenor operations in Europe. Nextra Wireless (www.nextra.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telenor in the Czech Republic, also has signed an LMDS contract with Alcatel.

Vivendi Telecom Hungary (www. vivendi.hu), winner of a national license in Hungary’s wireless auction held in June, will use Floware Wireless Systems’ Walkair BWA system (www.floware.com). It plans to install the network and to deliver services starting this year, connecting business subscribers to its telecommunications backbone, initially in the Budapest metropolitan area and later in other areas.