Broadband Internet service was by now supposed to be available in many neighborhoods, but vexingly, even in Silicon Valley, not every homeowner can easily access a high-speed line. Similarly, according to Lucent Technologies, only 10 percent of businesses are connected to a fat pipe.
But wireless providers insist things won't stay that way for long. Metricom, the wireless Internet service provider (ISP) that brought us the Ricochet modem, is hoping, along with Lucent, to be part of what The Strategis Group estimates will be an US$8 billion wireless infrastructure market within the next decade.
Two technologies paving the way are a beefed-up form of spread spectrum, which Metricom is marketing as "Wireless ISDN," and Local Multipoint Distribution Services (LMDS).
"We have developed a new modem software which will help us establish a high-speed, wireless [equivalent to] ISDN," said Lumin Yen, product manager at Metricom, which invented and supports the Ricochet.
Speeding on the Autobahn
Last year, with close to $60 million in funding from Paul Allen, Metricom started developing its newly expanded wireless network, codenamed Autobahn, by sending the packets in a more efficient way.
Metricom is currently using unlicensed spectrum in the 902 to 928 gigahertz band. To reach the ISDN-level speeds, a spokeswoman said that the company will be combining that spectrum with FCC-blessed unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 Ghz band, in addition to purchased space in the 2.3 Ghz band.
"The way our network currently works is that the packets go to the nearest and best poletop radio, located on the tops of telephone poles every quarter to half mile or so," said Metricom's Susan Kohl.
"They may take hops between these boxes to get to the wired access points, which is where they hit a T1 line," Kohl said. "But by using a combination of these three bands, we are trying to eliminate some of these hops and therefore increase the speed," she said.
Kohl added that the company was also experimenting with modulation to fine-tune performance.
Yen said the technology, combining the spread spectrum radio technology, radio network architecture, and an extensive hardwired infrastructure, covers about 25 million people in 21 of the top 25 US metropolitan areas.
Metricom hopes to compete with ISDN service providers when it rolls out its technology, and consumers will be able to purchase a Metricom modem, install software, and begin surfing at ISDN-level speeds.
The company will kick off market trials for its souped-up Ricochet in early 1999, probably in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Broadband Wireless for Business
In a related wireless technology development, Lucent Technologies this week completed the acquisition of Hewlett-Packard's local multipoint distribution services division. Lucent will offer wireless broadband services for business customers later this year, said Larry Schwerin, the company's manager of wireless broadband networks.
The LMDS technology had been in the Hewlett-Packard labs for three years, but HP didn't have the systems integration expertise for telephone networks, sources said. So the company began chatting with Lucent in November about an acquisition that would enable Lucent to market the technology.
"This LMDS technology was typically used for point-to-point backhaul links, like an extension cord," said Schwerin.
"This was between two corporations, or by a provider, who couldn't get fiber installed in their backbone," he said. "The breakthrough is that it is being applied in the local access network."
LMDS uses antennae to relay data, voice, and video directly into a wireline network. It is quite similar, in fact, to the spread-spectrum technology.
But there is a crucial difference: LMDS allows wireless access to networks at higher speeds - up to 45 megabits per second (Mbps), the equivalent of 30 times the speed of a T1 line, or over 1,500 times the speed of conventional PC modems today.
Emerging competitive local exchange carriers in the US, Latin America, and Asia are the targeted customers. "There is an incredible demand for fiber, but only 10 percent of buildings are attached to it," said Schwerin.
The networks will be close to 50-times faster than ISDN service, he said, adding that deals with access providers should be announced shortly. "We're getting a tremendous amount of interest from them. Some want data communications. Some want data and voice. Some want video."
Although this breakthrough technology has yet to be widely deployed domestically, the Netherlands is already using advanced wireless technologies - including LMDS - according to Amy Weil, a spokeswoman for the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency. But Metricom and Lucent are envisioning a much bigger playing field.
"It's a start," said Sherman Whipple, a research consultancy partner with Whipple, Sargent & Associates in Hingham, Mass.
"These kinds of technologies will make bandwidth more available to businesses and the consumer masses, and may spark increased usage of wireless consumer information appliances."
