NEXTEL BROADBAND TRIAL GOES PUBLIC

Nextel Communications has doubled the coverage area for a trial of Flarion Technologies' broadband wireless solution it launched just two months ago, while also announcing that it is beginning to sell service to the general public in the coverage area under the brand Nextel Wireless Broadband.

The trial uses Flarion's flash-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technology. The test area is now about 1300 square miles and extends through Raleigh to Durham, Chapel Hill and other neighboring communities in North Carolina. The expansion was based on the success of trial measurements of network speed, performance and customer response, according to Nextel. The carrier is touting typical downlink speeds of up to 1.5 Mb/s, with burst rates of up to 3.0 Mb/s. Typical uplink speeds are up to 375 kb/s, with burst rates of up to 750 kb/s.

The service also will begin to accept paying customers,” said a Nextel spokesman. “It will be marketed to both individuals and business users.”

The service is available under four different monthly plans ranging from $34.99 to $74.99. Also included is a one-time equipment fee for either a PC card for laptop computers or a wireless modem for desktop computers — the price for either is currently set at $100 during an early sign-up program.

Previously, the service was available only to a Raleigh test group that included local employees of Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and IBM, among others.