Innovations in Wireless Internet

On behalf of TMCnet, I attended Broadband Wireless World (http://www.shorecliffcommunications.com/bww05/) April 21-22, 2005, to get a first hand look at the latest innovations for wireless internet service providers (WISPs) to deliver wireless internet.

WiMAX was at center stage with production WiMAX chips shown by Fujisu http://www.fujitsu.com/us/news/pr/fma_20050421-1.html and Wavesat http://www.wavesat.com/media/index.html who was demonstrating a T1 going across their booth on WiMAX. The silicon has just been released, so it will be several months before the first WiMAX products appear, and probably several years before it is standard issue in your new notebook.

WiMAX (802.16) runs in the same spectrum as existing unlicensed WiFi (802.11) and licensed spectrum, but can carry many times the bandwidth, even to users in motion. The vision is that a WiMAX subscription will deliver DSL-like bandwidth to your moving car or rural home. The existing WiFi you enjoy with your latte is not going away, many predict that free WiFi is becoming an amenity that businesses will have to offer to remain competitive.

“Triple play” was also touted, delivering telephone, video and internet to a cereal box sized flat panel antenna on your roof or in a window. Nuvio http://www.nuvio.com/ was signing up ISPs with a private label VoIP (voice over IP) service that allows an ISP to be in the internet phone business in minutes offering robust features like Centrex and unlimited long distance. WaveIP http://www.waveip.com/ was showing simultaneous VoIP and video over wireless.

Remember when 900 MHz cordless phones were the rage, but then you started hearing your neighbors calls as the spectrum got crowded? Manufacturers moved to 2.4 GHz as phones using that spectrum may be sold worldwide unlike 900. The punch line is that the 900 mHz band is now largely unused, but several manufacturers are exploiting it for nlos (not line of sight) wireless Ethernet that can go miles through a forest or penetrate concrete walls to serve installations that are impractical to hardwire. Check out WaveRider http://waverider.com/ and Trango http://www.trangobroadband.com/,

WISPs are big business outside the US. One distributor told me that 70% of their sales last month were to Iraq. Manufacturers are global. E-ZY.net from Greece had attractively priced outdoor access points. MikroTik from Latviahttp://www.mikrotik.com/ has a Juicy Fruit sized module that plugs on the IDE connector on a PC motherboard making it a sophisticated router. InfiNet from Moscowhttp://www.infinetwireless.com manufactures indoor and outdoor solutions.

Prices of components have fallen drastically. WISPs want to spend as little as possible on the CPE (customer premises equipment) because about the most they can get from a new subscriber installation is $200. If it costs $400 in equipment to get a new customer on-line, they are upside down $200 for every new customer, severely limiting growth. Prices of access points that include and antenna and radio that were $500 a year ago are now well under the magic $200 for volume purchasers. Tranzeo Wireless http://www.tranzeo.com/index.html from British Columbia uses the power of the Canadian dollar and a limited feature set to offer very attractive pricing.

Do-it-yourselfers will find great deals on good quality enclosure/antenna combinations from Pacific Wireless http://pacwireless.com/. Renasis http://renasis.com/ showed a cigarette pack sized 802.11 radio that can output as much as one watt. Home WiFi is one-fiftieth that power. Before you decide to build yourself a tree-burner to reach your office 50 miles away keep In mind that the FCC http://www.fcc.gov was also on site and has specific regulations on the power and antenna configurations that are legal for unlicensed use.

The WiMAX Forum http://www.wimaxforum.org is a non-profit helping consumers by certifying compatibility and interoperability to a single standard that is sure to drive prices down quickly. Triple play offerings may be bringing internet, video and free phone calls to your dashboard or vacation home. Wireless competition will serve to keep prices in check and offerings robust from cable and telco operators too. FCC rulings have favored keeping internet offerings unfettered by regulation. The future of wireless internet looks bright and should benefit us all.