Thread- Just a general little article on the state of the broadband wireless technologies. I'm not sure of it's accuracy. I cut&pasted it over from Yahoo. But apprently it's a decent article from what I gather.
I have to say, I was surprised to read that Teligent and Winstar are rolling out MMDS. I thought they were pure LMDS plays. Maybe the author is wrong? I don't know. -MikeM(From Florida)
PS It'll be a miracle if this posts properly. It's been about 4 days now, and it's not much fun trying to post messages or respond to them.
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Broadband wireless comes in three major systems: local multipoint distribution service (LMDS), multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS) and personal communications services (PCS).
LMDS works in the 28 GHz range in the U.S. and from 24 GHz to 40 GHz overseas. The technology offers links of one to four miles, depending on the terrain and other conditions, between buildings and campuses. LMDS provides bandwidth in the OC-1 to OC-12 range, which is considerably greater than other wireless services.
MMDS works in the 2.2 GHz to 2.4 GHz range and offers connections of up to 15 miles. It offers 33 analog channels or up to 10 times as many digital channels. MMDS was designed primarily as a wireless transmission medium for pay TV before cable satellites and DBS (direct broadcast satellite) became popular. It's now mostly used to provide high-speed wireless Internet access across metropolitan areas.
PCS uses a collection of mostly unlicensed industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) bands (900 MHz, 2.4 GHz) to provide short-haul broadband wireless services, primarily to private and commercial vehicles.
The LMDS and MMDS fields will offer the greatest potential, says Allied's Fuertes. "LMDS will continue to make inroads into the market for high-value customers, accounting for 60 percent of subscriber revenues in 2005," he says. "MMDS is projected to lead the market with a 70 percent share in 2005, largely in the residential and SOHO [small office/home office] sectors."
Fuertes also sees various niche technologies, mostly using the unlicensed ISM bands, being used to address coverage area dark spots. "These systems will account for nearly 500,000 subscribers in 2005," he says.
Broadband wireless' future may be bright, but its recent past has been something of a black hole. Multiple ventures have missed rollout deadlines because of overly optimistic cost projections and an underestimation of technological limitations, says Gerry Kaufhold, principal wireless analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group, a technology research firm.
"As projects move forward at a glacial pace, it gives the impression that the market doesn't quite have its act together," says Kaufhold.
In fact, leading LMDS companies, including Teligent (TGNT) and Winstar (WCII), still derive much of their revenue from reselling services, rather than connecting customers via their own broadband wireless facilities.
But Hamid Akhavan, Teligent's CTO, says broadband wireless growth has to be viewed realistically. "We had a phenomenal year last year, going from having nothing to hundreds of sites deployed. We're in 40 markets now. That's quite an achievement, when you think about it."
Yet Teligent is one of several broadband wireless service providers that has had to rethink its technical strategy in the light of a slower than projected rollout. Until recently, Teligent had relied on mature and technologically simple point-to-point LMDS connections. But LMDS's limited coverage range hampered Teligent's deployment plans.
In an effort to gain momentum, the company is now beginning to utilize point-to-multipoint MMDS technology, which can blanket an entire metropolitan area from just one signal-origination center. Teligent is currently using point-to-multipoint transmitters on a limited basis in several markets. But the company isn't rolling out MMDS as quickly as it would like to because it's having difficulty obtaining the requisite hardware in sufficient quantities.
Tight equipment supplies also have been a problem for competitor Winstar, which is also experiencing a slower than hoped for MMDS rollout. |
