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Technology Stocks : Winstar Comm. (WCII) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jason Cogan who wrote (5480)	4/26/1998 6:43:00 PM
From: Bernard Levy	Respond to of 12468

Hi Jason: The wireless local loop system being developed by QCOM (wideband CDMA) is entirely different from what the millimeter waves operators are deploying. I believe QCOM's system will serve mobile computing. The main differences are: a) mobility-- the millimeter waves used by WCII and other fixed wireless operators do not accommodate mobility because of the LOS requirement. Mobility always adds tremendous difficulties, since the channel keeps changing. b) power-- the WCII millimeter wave system is a high power system (hence the reliability). Mobility requires low power, since the system needs to work from batteries. Low power means low signal to noise ratio, and hence a high probability of error for digital communications. I would have to check, but the probability of error (before error correction) for wireless systems is about 10^-3, and 10^-5 after correction. By opposition broadband wireless and satellite start at 10^-6 and use error correction to go to 10^-10 (fiber optic territory). c) bandwidth-- W-CDMA is still a relatively narrowband system compared to the approximately 1Gb/sec data rates you can squeeze in the 700MHz bandwidth available to WCII. d) operating frequencies-- I think WLL systems will operate around 2GHz. In fact, I tend to think that millimeter wave operators will relegate W-CDMA or other WLL technologies to niche markets (similar to the one MCOM is currently serving). Mobility is nice, but most of the data demand is generated by desktop computers, web browsers, etc... Best wishes, Bernard Levy