Apparently the repost window on the thread intro closed. Fwiw, here's the fuller version:
This thread is dedicated to posting and discussion of facts, news and higher level opinion of the technologies and companies involved in this burgeoning field of broadband wireless local access. BBFW, LMDS, MMDS, and related satellite technologies will be the focus.
Many reading here will already know that demand for bandwidth for data based communication is growing exponentially (according to the often quoted Sidgmore/WCOM statistic - 1000% per year for the foreseeable future). And many here will also know that as backbone bandwidth continues to grow through fiber baron buildout, the bottleneck is in broadband local access.
In the enterprise arena, statistics are that of the 750,000 commercial buildings in the US, about 10,000 currently are connected directly by fiber. At the growing costs for the intercity trenching of fiber (currently ~$150,000 national average / fiber mile for trenching, not inclusive of the opto-electronics), it's further thought that most of the "low hanging" fruit have been picked off, with at most 30,000 more of these buildings being cost justified for direct fiber. These 40,000 building represent about 40% of the existing business demand for broadband access data services. The remaining 710,000 buildings representing the other 60% of business broadband access demand are thought to be best served by a combination of other techniques, such as the family of broadband fixed wireless (BBFW) technologies such as LMDS, MMDS and satellite.
Among the current major players in these fields are WinStar (WCII), AT&T (T), MCI-Worldcom (WCOM), Nextlink (NXLK) and Loral (LOR).
Preferably, participants will honor (and appreciate) the desire for a one-stop-shop thread offering a high signal to noise ratio in the consideration of these and related issues.
Welcome all with this goal in mind. |
