To: Clarksterh who wrote (16652 ) 10/19/1998 3:38:00 AM From: Rajala Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 152472
Clark, thank you for your informative posting (unfortunately too long to paste here). Meanwhile I acknowledge that you have a point in a lot that you say, there are reasons why WLL can not realize the potential infra cost advantages that it theoretically has. Note: I use GSM as an example. One base station can have 90 channels in use simultaneously i.e. it can serve a very large base of phones (depending on how many minutes each phone is used a day, sensitivity to peak-hour busy signal etc.). Thus the (marginally) higher theoretical capacity of WLL brings very little savings in rural areas as the the capacity is not the bottleneck (distance to base station is). Secondly, the economies of scale are of such great magnitude with GSM system that IMO the cheapest way of designing a WLL system is by using standard components of GSM. Thus no savings nor more spectral efficiency. If not, one WLL base station is going to be more expensive. Also we should not count the base stations on the highway as extra cost, as the mobile system can be built just as patchy as the WLL system. In India this appears to be the norm. Thirdly, everybody knows that the cities either have or are going to have mobile systems. Thus a business case of building a substantial WLL network to, say, Krassnoyarsk is weak, because the big guy (mobile) is going to come and take the lollipop, it is only going to be matter of time. And finally, the fallacy of 3rd world falling in love with WLL is total nonsense. In fact the obvious advantages of a mobile (you run out of gas or you left your wallet into a public toilet 100 miles ago) over a fixed phone are far greater in the 3rd world than in the developed world. Because there are no hamburger joints and service stations around the corner fitted with fixed phones. WLL concept fits actually better the developed world. This is one thing the MBAs drafting their WLL business plans never understood. Another thing that they never realized is that the honest name for WLL should be "Wireless Fixed Phone". Sounds like an oxymoron, but there you are. - rajala