a few comments regarding OPXS vs Terabeam and Airfiber from 21st century advisor:
We spent some time at Networld going over the advantages of OA's solution with Dr. Eric Korevaar, founder of AstroTerra and now OA's President and Chief Technology Officer. The main takeaway from our chat was the fact that Optical Access has a lot of real-world experience that their main competitors -- TeraBeam and AirFiber -- don't yet have. AstroTerra and Jolt together have completed over 3,000 installations on rooftops all over the world.
Dr. Korevaar told us not to underestimate the importance of real-world experience. When we asked him for a comparison of OA's strategy to those of AirFiber and TeraBeam, he said that both companies look great -- on paper. But out in the field, their plans are going to need a lot of tweaking. TeraBeam's plan to beam through office windows (OA can do this as well, although rooftops are preferred) will have to overcome the serious diffraction effects of the thin-film sun coatings that are in most office glass. For this reason the laser has to be at a precise angle to the window, this limits installation flexibility. Also, he brought up a good point about installing in a window: you only get coverage on one side of the building. Most buildings have four sides. What about the tenant who wants service on the other side of the building?
AirFiber's solution is a big node that sits on the roof, with redundant systems arrayed around a central stalk. The trouble here is the lack of location flexibility -- out on a rooftop, it's not always best to have all your systems in one fixed spot for a mesh system. Sometimes you need to mount near the edge, or route around a tree, or do something creative on the spot. AirFiber won't let you do that.
Optical Access has the most flexible solution, with the greatest range, and the highest bandwidth to boot -- up to OC-48, or 2.5 Gbps. Plus it's cheap and carriers only have to pay as they go. They don't have to spend a fortune up front just to get started. They can add buildings one at a time in a downtown metropolitan area. We think carriers are going to eat it up. |
