Don’t sell fixed wireless short when it comes to broadband: Sprint president

Much debate has surrounded the viability of fixed wireless to provide broadband access, particularly to regions that fall outside the reach of cable and DSL. In Canada, the use of wireless for local access will become more pronounced as the government embarks on its plan to ensure every community has broadband access by 2004. Sprint is one of the largest proponents of using fixed wireless to effectively compete against the hardwired incumbents. Len Lauer, president at Sprint Global Markets Group, highlighted the potential of this technology during his keynote address at the Wireless Communications Association International’s annual conference in Boston on June 26. The following is an edited excerpt of his speech. Ask someone who provides broadband access through DSL or cable connections, and they’ll tell you that fixed wireless doesn’t exist. If you ask me, you’re asking someone who provides both DSL and MMDS connections. So what would I say? I would say that fixed wireless is on its way to becoming the disruptive technology that changes the broadband market in a major way. Large areas of the country remain out of range of either cable or DSL, and that fact will not change dramatically anytime soon. Fixed wireless has speed and lower deployment costs on its side, and with next-generation technologies, that advantage will only increase. Right now, we’re finding out just what we can do with new technologies for the customer, and what they will do for us. Customers will like not having to mount an antenna on their houses. We’re going to benefit from the ability to better utilize our spectrum. We’ve already begun testing various next-generation technologies in the Seattle area. And though it’s too soon for me to say definitively how next-generation will enhance our Sprint Broadband Direct service, let me give you an idea about what kind of improvements we expect to see: Today, depending on the characteristics of the market, we’re able to serve only 60-80 per cent of the homes within range of our service towers due to line-of-sight issues. With next-generation technology in place, we expect that number to improve to around 90 per cent. Today, due to a combination of aesthetics, line-of-sight and other technical issues, our percentage of sales to installs is around 50 per cent. With next generation, we expect to virtually eliminate such fall-out. By offering our customers a self-installation option, we expect to reduce our cost per installation by 90 per cent. Through frequency re-use, we think we’ll be able to grow the capacity of our existing systems by some 10-fold or more, as necessary to meet customer growth. These improvements will contribute to our ability to dramatically lower our cost structure, particularly in relation to competing technologies. This lower cost structure will bolster our business case for broadband and position fixed wireless to introduce a dramatically different – or should I say differentiated? – value proposition in the market. By removing or reducing factors that inhibit fixed wireless growth, I believe that next-generation technologies will open the door for MMDS to become a disruptive technology that will change the broadband market for everyone. We’ll continue exploring next-generation opportunities over the next few months. When we’ve successfully completed testing in Seattle, we hope to test next-generation technologies in other markets before the end of this year. We all have reasons to be excited about what it will mean for this industry, but it is up to us – all of us, as operators, licensees, vendors and regulators – to stay committed to making next generation fixed wireless a reality and, ultimately, growing this industry. The broadband opportunity that lies before us will not wait for us to seize it, and competing technologies will be vying for supremacy. It requires our collective belief, dedication and collaborative spirit to ensure that we succeed in realizing the potential of this technology. And with potentially disruptive next-generation technological advances waiting in the wings, I believe we’re on the verge of bridging the digital divide and changing the broadband landscape for everyone.

Don’t sell fixed wireless short when it comes to broadband: Sprint president

News | 07/09/2001 4:00 am EDT

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