Paul if you play tech much, have you looked at BRZE? They supply the modems for this service and full wireless capability for other ISPs:
Little-Known Start-Up Is Offering Fast Web Access
By Peter Benesh
Investor's Business Daily
How fast is fast? Remember the days before you knew about the Internet, when you thought 9.6 kilobits a second was fast? Or when you began Web surfing and made the leap to a sizzling 56K, the current dial-up standard?
Then cable and digital subscriber lines came along. They push data at about 1.5 megabits per second.
But now, a start-up actually is delivering wireless Internet access at twice the speeds of DSL and cable – and is promising to boost that to eight times DSL and cable speeds.
The company, Boston-based Broadband2Wireless Inc., provides the fastest online connections for consumers and small businesses, says Robertson Stephens Inc. analyst Jim Friedland. (Bigger businesses often can lease faster, more costly dedicated lines.)
The company uses what’s known as unlicensed radio spectrum to provide its service.
Unlicensed spectrum is the same frequency used for common devices such as cordless phones and garage-door openers.
While the wireless industry groans over the billions of dollars it costs to buy licensed spectrum at government auctions, BB2W, as the company calls itself, uses frequencies allocated years ago for public purposes.
The service is called Airora. All the owner has to do is hook up a wireless modem.
This device, a little transmitter and receiver, connects to a personal computer or laptop through a standard port on the back of the computer or via a common network card.
BB2W uses modems from BreezeCom Ltd., an Israel-based company with U.S. operations in Carlsbad, Calif.
No Interference
The system is so simple there’s no need for an installer, says Paul Adams, chief executive of BB2W. He was formerly with DSL providers RCN Corp. and Flashcom.
BB2W rents space on the rooftops of buildings in its service areas. That’s where it puts its base stations - that is, the transceivers. At the customer end, once the modem is ready to go, so is the service. "We send signals through windows and walls," Adams said. "It’s plug-and-play.
"These are the true 3G networks, without billion-dollar licenses," Adams said. He was referring to the next generation of wireless services called third-generation or 3G.
Though a lot of gadgets use this unlicensed spectrum, Adams says there’s no problem with interference. He says the Federal Communications Commission limits transmission power and regulates the equipment to enable many users to coexist.
BB2W uses a technique called frequency hopping to share a band and protect against interference.
If the frequency becomes busy, Adams says, the worst that can happen is a slowdown in transmission, not a disconnection.
Analyst Friedland says BB2W bears watching. "They have a very good business model," he said. "The cost of deploying is not extremely high. Whether the technology is up to snuff, though, has yet to be proven."
To reach its customers, BB2W is building its own network of transmitter towers. Each tower covers a three-mile radius.
Coming Soon: Santa Monica
The company says it has signed up several hundred subscribers in Boston since it began service there about two months ago. BB2W sells the service directly in Boston.
In its second market, Santa Monica, Calif., Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. will be the reseller. Santa Monica sales are set to begin this summer.
By year-end, Adams says, BB2W also will launch in Miami-Fort Lauderdale; Denver; Boulder, Colo.; and the Texas cities of Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
BB2W started in February 2000. That was just a month before the Nasdaq peaked and tech funding started to stall.
But Adams says the company is doing well and will show positive cash flow within 18 months.
Its cost per new customer is $150. That amount assumes users sign up for a one-year subscription and buy a modem for $99.
BB2W subsidizes each customer’s $300 modem from the yearlong subscription at $49.95 a month. Adams says some of his cable and DSL rivals can spend up to $800 for each new customer.
Spectrum Bonanza
Backers of BB2W include YankeeTek Ventures, a Cambridge, Mass., venture capital firm led by Howard Anderson, founder of research firm Yankee Group.
Also behind the company, either directly or as members of YankeeTek, Anderson says, are Nortel Networks Corp., 3Com Corp. and Novell Inc. He says YankeeTek invested $3.5 million for a 7% stake.
Anderson says he liked BB2W’s pitch. "It’s an interesting application of a new technology," he said. "Unlicensed spectrum is going to be a bonanza."
More Demand Than Supply
There is more consumer demand than supply for high-speed Internet access, he says. "We count about 20 million households economically advantaged and bandwidth-disadvantaged. It will be years before the cable infrastructure is upgraded, and they may not see DSL in their lifetimes."
Friedland says BB2W’s success might depend on how fast it can expand. "If BB2W can ramp up quickly, it could be exciting," Friedland said. "It will be six months to a year before we know if Airora is going to stick." |
