Broadband looks for way past problem 'last mile'
ANH-THU PHAN
When it comes to providing broadband Internet access to homes, the "last-mile" problem is one of the biggest challenges.
New fibre-optic and cable installations are expensive, while existing infrastructure usually belongs to dominant companies that will charge high tolls for access.
In Hong Kong, Pacific Century CyberWorks owns most of the fibre, while Hong Kong Cable owns the cable lines, and these companies also provide services of their own, giving them even more incentive to make it difficult for new competitors to enter the homes that they have wired up.
Newly launched services, such as Sony's So-net and CLP TeleCom's Oxygen, must lease lines in order to deliver their services.
One way to get over the last-mile hurdle is to use a technology such as the microwave-based, multi-point distribution service (LMDS).
The Hong Kong Government recently licensed five companies to use LMDS for providing Internet services.
Hong Kong-listed Welback Holdings this week introduced another last-mile alternative, and plans to test the system in Beijing, Taipei and Massachusetts in the next six months.
Welback's system relies on W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access) and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing), technologies similar to those used in mobile-phone networks. It relies on base stations that provide wireless relays for data packets to receivers placed at users' homes.
Internet service providers had shown the most interest in the system, said Joseph Garodnick, president and chief executive of Widax Corp, which is providing Welback with the technology.
Widax is affiliated with Taiwan's Gen-Wan Technology, in which Welback has a 25 per cent stake.
Regulatory issues would need to be addressed for many service providers wishing to use the Widax system.
In Hong Kong, the Government has granted licences specifically for the use of LMDS technology and it is unclear whether new licences would be needed for the Welback/Widax technology.
It has been reported that some LMDS operators have been struggling to reach first-year targets for the number of buildings wired because of difficulty in gaining permission from property developers to enter buildings.
Widax said its system could support speeds of up to 25 megabits per second, or about 20 times faster than cable.
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