Real success stories replace hype of fixed wireless at international conference

International fixed wireless operators have banded together to form an Operator’s Working Group within the Wireless Communications Association (WCA). The action was taken at the WCA’s Ninth Annual Technical Symposium in San Jose last month, and it’s hoped the initiative will play a key role in reversing the fortunes of the fixed wireless sector. Paul Lamontagne, president and CEO of Milton ON-based Look Communications Inc., explains that the working group will operate under the auspices of the WCA and that it will share best practices on a number of technical and business issues. "We saw great commonality to work together – brainstorming, sharing best practices, helping in our respective growth strategies going forward," says Lamontagne, who was a speaker at the symposium. The formation of this working group has been taken as a sign of a renewed optimism for the fixed wireless industry, which has experienced its fair share of bad news in the last few years. One only has to mention the names of WinStar Communications and Teligent to illustrate the recent state of the industry. However, Lamontagne says times are changing. The last few years were dominated by a wait-and-see approach to what Sprint and MCI would do. After having acquired a number of smaller operators, most in the industry wanted to see what the large players were going to do, he adds. "What was interesting (this year) was there were a lot of smaller operators, the real entrepreneurs in the industry, who were really excited about the successes that they were having and excited about various opportunities going forward," Lamontagne tells Report on Wireless. Among the topics discussed at the conference were hotspots, 802.16, 802.20, TDD versus FDD and OFDM versus wideband CDMA. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently established a new standards group to work on increasing speeds of mobile broadband wireless using equipment based on the new 802.20 standard. The new standard will address mobile broadband in the licensed bands below 3.5 GHz. It calls for the delivery of data rates faster than 1 Mbps at vehicular speeds up to 250 km/h. Changes in the industry Lamontagne notes that industry trends have changed over the last few years as players have accepted that bigger is not necessarily better. That was the title of his presentation at the symposium. "There clearly has been a refocusing along the kinds of themes talked about in the last year," Lamontagne explains. "You need to be focused and you need to target your markets. And that’s why Look is putting so much emphasis on its MDU (multi-dwelling unit) segment, its SOHO segment, its SME segment…opening up new markets for not only digital television, but wireless access (to the Internet). The emphasis we put on bundling. Those are all key themes that were generally discussed in that forum." The head of Toronto-based TeraGo Networks Inc. agrees with Lamontagne that companies will require focus to be successful. Bryan Boyd, president and CEO of TeraGo, says that much of his company’s success is based on its niche business strategy. As opposed to the now defunct Maxlink Communications, which offered both voice and data services, TeraGo concentrates on data services only, offering high-speed services to businesses large and small in suburban industrial parks. (See story in this issue for more information on TeraGo Networks.) "We’re not trying to be all things to a number of people," Boyd tells RoW. "What that allows us to do is to be excellent in terms of how we approach the customer, how we support the customer, how we architect the network. We don’t have a lot of systems and other investments in other services or other infrastructure that really isn’t needed for what we’re doing for the customer. There isn’t a compromise in architecture between voice and data." Not only was there a positive buzz at the symposium, many believe that the industry is poised for an acceleration. The equipment is becoming less expensive with greater functionality and faster speeds, which reduces the cost of deployment for operators. "Operators are seeing that (networks) can be engineered properly and therefore can be used to deliver a quality of service product," Boyd says. "Two or three years ago, you had the skeptics because WinStar and others were imploding. The renaissance is on the backs of companies like TeraGo and is helping people to see that there is a model here. "(The industry) is being reborn of people applying the technology in a very focused way as opposed to a broad brush – ‘I’m going to build a telecommunications company to roll out service everywhere.’ It’s one arrow in the quiver."

Real success stories replace hype of fixed wireless at international conference

News | February 4, 2003

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