Re: Fixed Broadband Wireless- MMDS via ADCT / MCI-Sprint Trials
Thread- It's getting kind of complicated to figure out who the winners in the xMDS equipment game will be. Apparently ADC Telecommunications(sym:ADCT) was eager to spread the word on a trial of their MMDS product and jumped the gun on this MCI-Sprint trial. A week later and I can't find anything more about it. Maybe it was cancelled?
And FWIW, when Sprint killed the AN2100 order that Tellabs was working on, I'm pretty certain it was because they had so much narrowband voice traffic business they decided not to use the cutting edge AN2100 product. Instead opting to go with a legacy solution from Nortel(my guess) that would get them more bandwidth for voice purposes. In other words, I can see why Sprint may not be in a huge rush to do, risky MMDS, local phone/data services when their LD business is so robust. -MikeM(From Florida)
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MCI, Sprint To Trial Wireless Net Service Unveiled
Details of MCI WorldCom and Sprint's newest high-speed wireless plan are out of the bag.
March 2, 2000- Last week, ADC Telecommunications prematurely waved victory flags that it had been selected as one of two vendors to provide equipment for MCI WorldCom and Sprint's upcoming trials of Multipoint Multichannel Distribution Service (MMDS). But MCI WorldCom apparently got cold feet over the spilled beans and quickly zipped up on details of the vendor agreements, refusing to discuss ADC's role in its trials.
"We have not announced any details on any trials to date," said an MCI WorldCom spokesman. Sources said the faux pas by ADC left MCI WorldCom's public relations seething.
According to ADC's early an-nouncement, the company will provide equipment to support MCI WorldCom's MMDS trials in Boston. Sources close to the situation said Cisco Systems is reportedly the second vendor that was selected for MMDS trials that are to be held in Dallas sometime next summer.
MMDS is a fixed wireless technology that depends on receivers affixed to homes communicating to base stations that will compete with other access technologies, such as cable, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and satellite services to meet the increased demand for high-speed Internet access and video. MCI WorldCom and Sprint's acquisition of multiple MMDS properties over the past two years and the companies' plan to merge have anointed the carriers as the biggest collective holder of MMDS licenses. According to company plans, MCI WorldCom will offer fixed wireless service in more than 100 cities by the end of 2001.
ADC Telecommunications, which agreed last week to purchase DSL company PairGain Technologies, will provide its two-way CellSpan platform to MCI WorldCom for the MMDS trials. Two-way transmission is necessary in order to provide fast Net connections.
According to MCI WorldCom, MMDS technology has a range of up to 35 miles in most markets and can provide scalable bandwidth at rates of up to 10 megabits per second. But many analysts said that there are still significant challenges to rolling out MMDS services.
"It's still only viable in large, urban areas due to its line-of-sight requirements and those same requirements limit its reach to certain 'shaded' areas within a city," said Michael Paxton, senior analyst of converging markets and technologies at research firm Cahners In-Stat Group. "Also, the service needs to be less expensive."
According to Paxton, MCI WorldCom and Sprint are currently trying to work out the technology's kinks with their limited service trials. |
