Nextel Does Broadband
By Dave Mock
April 14, 2004
Mobile broadband junkies just got another shot of endorphins from
Nextel Communications (Nasdaq: NXTL) today with the announcement of a
commercial launch of its wireless broadband trial. The broadband
wireless service has been offered to select customers on a trial
basis in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area for the past few months, and
the company was obviously pleased with the results.
Consistent with its roots, Nextel embraced an alternative technology
from privately held Flarion Technologies to deliver speedy bits to
its mobile customers. The technology, called Flash-OFDM, was
developed by some creative minds at Lucent (NYSE: LU) and is also
being tested by many international carriers.
The announcement comes as several U.S. competitors are also rolling
ahead with wireless broadband initiatives. AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE)
announced the first national broadband wireless network, though, data
speeds, averaging around 100 kbps, are not on par with other
offerings. Verizon Wireless -- part of parent Verizon Communications
(NYSE: VZ) -- announced a push to offer its much faster
BroadbandAccess service nationwide. Also, competition from Wi-Fi hot
spots, such as a recent deal to light up McDonald's (NYSE: MCD),
attempts to lure laptop- and PDA-toting consumers.
Nextel is also upping the ante on competing offerings -- its
technology claims typical downstream speeds (from the Internet to the
user) of a whopping 1.5 Mbps. That's about three times faster than
Verizon's Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM)-powered service and 15 times faster
than AT&T Wireless' EDGE technology.
More importantly, however, is that the typical uplink speed Nextel
claims is 375 kbps, far faster than the 40 to 60 kbps offered even by
Verizon. The uplink speed can make a big difference to users who
transfer large files or email attachments while mobile, or who use
applications such as video conferencing. Competing offerings that are
weak in the uplink speeds struggle with large uploads and bit-
intensive peer-to-peer communication applications.
If and when Nextel goes nationwide with the service, it will offer
yet another option for consumers and business customers. The
competition will also help drop prices further -- $80 per month is
currently the norm for unlimited wireless broadband. However, Nextel
has differentiated itself with a multitiered pricing scheme that
ranges from $35 to $75 per month. On cheaper plans, users opt for
slower speeds or limits on total data consumption.
With free and paid Wi-Fi also expanding, reasonably priced broadband
wireless services may not be too far off for mainstream American
consumers. |
