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To: KevRupert who wrote (6246)	4/4/2000 11:51:00 PM
From: KevRupert	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

MCI WorldCom To Try Wireless Service New York Times March 8, 2000 MCI WorldCom has begun testing wireless delivery of high-speed Internet service for homes and businesses in three small markets. The trials in Jackson, Miss., Baton Rouge, La., and Memphis, Tenn., are part of a plan to provide a high-capacity "broadband" link to the Web without paying to use cable TV wires and telephone lines owned by other companies. Last year, before they agreed to merge, MCI WorldCom and Sprint both began buying licenses around the country to transmit signals with the wireless technology called Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service ? also known as fixed wireless because the customer doesn?t change locations like a mobile phone user. The companies also view wireless service as a way to reach suburban and rural areas where the cable and telephone networks haven?t been upgraded for high-speed digital transmission. "Our wireless strategy makes perfect sense in markets where customers have little, if any, choice for high-speed connectivity," John Stupka, president of MCI WorldCom Wireless Solutions said Tuesday. Most of the customers in the three trial markets are businesses that will use a pizza-sized satellite dish to connect the wireless signal with an office network at a data speed of up to 10 megabytes per second, or more than 150 times faster than a regular dial-up telephone modem. MCI WorldCom is also testing the service with consumers in a residential complex in Jackson consisting of 37 buildings with 312 apartments. Instead of using the satellite dish, those cutomers will plug a wireless modem into their computers, enabling those with laptops to roam their apartments or anywhere else in the complex and connect to the Internet without a wire. The service costs $39.99 a month and the wireless attachment requires a refundable deposit of $100. Ramkrishna Kasargod, an industry analyst with Morgan Keegan & Company Inc., said fixed wireless technology will make MCI WorldCom more self-sufficient when it comes to offering Internet and broadband services. "What it will do is provide them with a local access route into their customer base," Kasargod said. MCI WorldCom "wanted to roll it out as soon as they could to provide access on a network that they controlled so they would not have to depend on leasing from other companies that they compete with."