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Check out CAWS! Currently at 8 3/4.
This hasn't yet been picked up by the other newswires although DJ and Bloomberg will run stories this afternoon.
ALBANY, N.Y., May 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Testing has begun in Washington on the first Internet-access product delivered by a wireless television company, CAI Wireless Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CAWS) said today. The service uses high-speed wireless modems and is capable of rapidly downloading to customers' computers full-motion video, audio and data at speeds almost seven times faster than the fastest telephony-based modems at consumer costs that are competitive with other commercial Internet access providers. CAI plans to develop similar systems in its other markets throughout the Northeast.
The wireless Internet service sends information to its customers' computer terminals at a rate of 10 megabits per second (Mbps), nearly seven times the rate of today's fastest T1 telephone lines, which transfer data at 1.5 Mbps. By year-end, CAI expects the data transfer rate to nearly triple, reaching 27 Mbps, as wireless modem technology advances. The system's return path receives information from customers through traditional telephony.
CAI's service utilizes multichannel multipoint distribution system (MMDS) technology, which transmits microwave signals over the 2 gigahertz (GHz) band of the radio spectrum. MMDS enables superior signal transmission with fewer disruptions than other wireless technologies transmitted at higher frequencies, which are more susceptible to obstructions such as foliage and environmental concerns such as rain and other precipitation. The MMDS technology also allows high-speed access to Internet web browsers with greater ease.
"Our Internet access service is lightning-fast," said John J. Prisco, president of CAI Wireless Systems. "Anyone frustrated with the agonizing delays associated with surfing the Internet using telephony- based providers will be amazed with our product. And because it is wireless, it has the potential to quickly reach a much larger customer base, particularly in outlying areas where traditional cable has yet to be installed, at much more affordable installation costs."
Wireless high-speed data transfer allows graphics-heavy Internet and World Wide Web sites to be accessed easily, without concerns about errors because of cable line noise. And although the system requires traditional telephony to send data to CAI's Internet service, speed is not hampered because heavy data transfer originates at web servers rather than at web explorers.
Unlike Internet services delivered by traditional hard-wire cable programming providers, CAI's system does not require customers to subscribe to the company's cable television programming. The Navy Computer and Telecommunications Station in Washington (NCTSW), part of the U.S. Navy; several Washington-area schools, including the Churchill Elementary School in McLean, Va., and law firm Rini, Coran & Lancellotta are among the groups involved in the trial, which originates from a facility on the campus of George Washington University.
CAI is deploying the system in Washington with National Digital Network (NDN), an Internet provider with MMDS channels in the top 25 markets. Hybrid Networks is furnishing the high-speed modems used in the trial, and has the first wireless modem in production for Internet networking via MMDS. The Internet service uses a conditional access system similar to other Internet access providers to ensure security.
CAI, based in Albany, N.Y., operates six analog-based wireless cable systems in New York City, Rochester and Albany, N.Y., Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Va. In addition, CAI has a portfolio of wireless cable channel rights in eight additional markets, including Long Island, Buffalo and Syracuse, N.Y., Providence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., Boston, Mass., Baltimore, Md., and Pittsburgh, Pa.
CO: CAI Wireless Systems
ST: New York, District of Columbia
IN: CPR TLS
SU: PDT
05/23/96 09:38 EDT |
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