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To: Clarksterh who wrote (16652)10/16/1998 12:44:00 PM
From: gdichaz  Respond to of 152472
 
To Clark: Very much appreciate your careful analysis of cost advantages of WLL. In the real world, both WLL and the combined mobile/WLL will be built out. I suggested that in the 3rd world where I have had some experience, the installed landwire is frequently (mis)managed by government or entrenched monopolies which make customers desperate for any alternative. Wireless therefore has a huge potential market among those who have to wait months, pay bribes, et al to get a phone with a wire attached. That is one. The other is where there are no wires. That is most of the world. G* will fill some of that demand. But IMO both WLL and mobile/WLL will be active players outside the cities as well. The flavor chosen will of course depend on cost analysis but also unfortunately on what is possible within the convoluted laws, rules, regulations governing telecom in many, many countries (and not just in the 3rd world :-) ) and who has the installed base doing what. It is necessary to find a crack in the system to introduce anything rpt anything new and in some cases that will be WLL and in others mobile/WLL. Fortunately the Q can be a major presence directly in either or both depending on the specific facts of the individual country situation. And of course if Nortel, Lucent or Motorola meet that need where CDMA has practical advantages, the Q benefits with $$ flowing in. As I suggested before, there are major market opportunities for the Q in both WLL and mobile/WLL in many countries around the world. Cheers. Chaz



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