Sprint offers fixed wireless to home.
Sprint to launch high-speed wireless Net access for home users
www0.mercurycenter.com
Posted at 9:35 p.m. PDT Monday, October 23, 2000
BY JOSHUA L. KWAN
Mercury News
Sprint Corp. plans to launch high-speed Internet access service in Silicon Valley today that promises to bring competition to a field dominated by DSL and cable modems.
Called "fixed wireless" and priced at about $50 a month, the Sprint service uses radio waves to relay Internet data between a central transmission tower and a pizza box-size antenna attached to a customer's rooftop.
Until now, the Bay Area had two choices for high-speed access to the Internet: cable modems using cable television wires or digital subscriber line (DSL), which operates over copper telephone wires.
"We anticipate it will be very well received because there's such a pent-up demand for broadband speed," said Rene Wukich, Sprint's general manager of the Bay Area fixed wireless group. "There's no dependency on phone lines or cable lines."
Everyone within a 35-mile radius of a fixed wireless tower can get high-speed access to the Internet, Sprint says, as long as their home is not blocked by geography. Sprint's tower is located on Monument Peak just outside Fremont, and it will cover San Jose and much of the Silicon Valley. Sprint has another tower on San Bruno Mountain near Brisbane that will go into operation next week for Oakland and the East Bay. The same tower will be able to provide service to San Francisco early next year, Sprint said.
The luster of wireless is that it hurdles the obstacles that wired options face.
Cable, DSL limitations
Cable modem connections are available only to people who have lines specially upgraded by the cable operator for Internet use. That line is shared by an entire neighborhood, which means data speeds often slow when lots of people log on the Net.
DSL is available only to customers who live within three miles of a telephone company's "central office," where Internet connection equipment is installed and where local phone lines plug into the larger network. People who live more than three miles away from the central office can't get DSL service, and speeds at the outer edge are typically slower.
"This is a good thing to accelerate the adoption of broadband," said a spokeswoman for Excite@Home, which offers cable modem service. "It's great for the industry. Welcome, Sprint. But of course we think cable modem is the way to go."
Fixed wireless offers the same speed for everyone, 1.5 megabits per second for downloading information from the Internet and 256 kilobits per second for sending data out. That compares with a typical dial-up modem speed of 56K.
Sprint's plan costs $49.95 a month for a single computer connection. With a one-year subscription, the equipment charge is $199. Installation is free for a limited time. The price is comparable to installing cable or DSL.
The Sprint service won't be without its own variables.
"The question is, are people willing to drop current headaches for a new set of headaches?" asked Jane Zweig, a telecommunications analyst with Herschel Shosteck Associates Ltd. in Washington, D.C.
Radio signals are deflected by hills, thick groves of trees and tall buildings; rooftop antennas must have a clear path to the tower.
The transmission tower is linked via fiber-optic lines to a switching center that has a direct connection to the rest of the Internet, where computers across the country store the text, music and video files that people want to download.
Fixed wireless offers a number of advantages for providers such as Sprint.
A single tower can serve 20,000 to 30,000 customers without having to install equipment at dozens of central offices or dig up ground to lay miles of cable lines.
Instead of grooming an expansive network of underground or above-ground wires, Sprint and other fixed wireless providers must keep watch over just a handful of radio towers in each market.
"While this has yet to be proven, speculation is that there will be lower network maintenance and operating costs," said wireless equipment analyst Jeff Kvaal of Lehman Bros.
Other wireless services
Fixed wireless is a new and relatively untested technology. Other services that would use satellites are making headway into high-speed Internet access. Companies such as Tachyon Inc. of San Diego lease equipment on satellites that can provide coverage over an entire continent. But for now, the cost of service limits the target audience to businesses.
Sprint already operates its wireless Internet service in five markets: Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., Colorado Springs, Colo., Detroit and Houston. Rival AT&T Corp. started its service in Dallas and Fort Worth, and it plans to enter San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston and Anchorage.
Zweig expects the telecom companies to bundle their various services to offer a complete communications package to consumers.
"It's part of a much bigger piece of the puzzle," she said. "They want to hold onto the customer and keep their loyalty either through wireless phone services, land line phone services and now high-speed Internet access."
Contact Joshua L. Kwan at jkwan@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5232.
P.S. also posted on Wi-LAN thread. JimBo |
