Consumers Clamor For Broadband Wireless, Sprint Reports
From the August 28 edition of Wireless Insider
By Malcolm Spicer
With its operations in Phoenix and Tuscon, Ariz., representing only a drop of its market licenses, Sprint Broadband Wireless Group is preparing to open the floodgates for its fixed wireless Internet offering.
The division of Kansas City, Mo.-based Sprint [FON], along with its two largest competitors in the U.S. market for multichannel, multipoint delivery services, MCI WorldCom [WCOM] and Nucentrix
Broadband Networks [NCNX], have filed a total of 175 applications with the FCC seeking permission to provide two-way MMDS on spectrum licensed for one-way service.
Sprint Broadband has signed on more than 5,000 customers in Arizona since launching MMDS services in Phoenix this May and in Tuscon the following month.
"We have not had to spend a single cent of advertising or marketing money," said Sprint Broadband spokesman Robert Hoskins. "We're actually afraid to spend money on advertising because we've already experienced a flood, or a wave or whatever you want to call it, of business."
The company has filed applications with the FCC to provide two-way MMDS on spectrum in 45 other markets across the country it is licensed for one-way service. Sprint Broadband's licenses for Colorado Springs, Colo., Detroit, Houston, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., already are for two-way service.
MCI WorldCom, Sprint's former merger partner, has filed 60 applications with the FCC to allow two-way services in markets across the country. MCI WorldCom has not launched commercial wireless broadband services, but it is testing its MMDS system in its headquarters, Jackson, Miss., as well as in Baton Rouge, La., Boston, Dallas and Memphis, Tenn.
Nucentrix has filed applications for two-way services in 70 markets across Texas and Midwestern states.
The FCC accepted applications from operators of MMDS radio frequencies for licenses to provide two-way communications services between Aug. 14 and 18.
Sprint, MCI and Nucentrix are members of the Wireless DSL Consortium, which was launched in July to light a fire beneath industry deployment of broadband wireless access products. The consortium also includes ADC [ADCT], Conexant Systems [CNXT], Gigabit Wireless, Intel [INTC], Nortel Networks [NT] and Vyyo [VYYO].
Sprint Broadband plans to launch high-speed wireless Internet services in Colorado Springs, Houston and the two California markets next, Hoskins said. Before the end of the year, the company plans to be operating in 15 to 20 markets. And next year, it will add 50 more, he said.
"It's going to be a race," Hoskins said. "Speed to market is key, just like in every market."
And Sprint Broadband is sure it has lapped the field in rolling out high-speed Internet services for consumers. "The biggest demand has come from the residential part of the equation," Hoskins said. "So many people are into the Internet now and they're tired of having a slow connection."
Wireline-based Internet service providers don't seem to be in a hurry to span the last mile and deliver high-speed connections to homes. While businesses pay for high-speed service on T-1 lines, few consumers will pay the fees for residential service.
"There's not one [competitor to Sprint Broadband] and that's why people are flocking to the service," Hoskins said. "The only thing comparable is a T-1 line, which costs $1,500 a month or so. We think this is one of the things that's going to stimulate competition."
Sprint Broadband charges $39.95 a month for residential users, and $89.95 a month for businesses with up to 55 terminals.
MMDS technology requires line-of-sight connections between users' receivers and providers' transmitting antennas. Although Sprint Broadband's towers can reach receivers within 35 miles, the line-of-sight limitation can impede offering service to some customers without other antennas used as repeaters to carry signals around obstructions.
Other technology - orthogonal frequency division multiplexing - is being developed to transmit wireless broadband signals around buildings or other obstructions between MMDS transmitters and receivers.
"As soon as we think that technology is ready, we'll put it to work," Hoskins said. "The only reason you put in multiple towers is just to add more pathways for line-of-sight, or to add more capacity."
Fixed Wireless Broadband Market: LMDS, MMDS, WCS & Others
2000
2 billion
2008
25 billion
Source: The Aberdeen Group |
