Now that the nation’s top wireless carrier and its second-largest cable TV company have announced plans to merge, industry watchers are speculating about how the companies might converge their networks.
Dan Youmans, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless Services Inc., said it is too soon to say exactly how AT&T and Tele-Communications Inc. will integrate their networks and services together.
“We know that wireless will be part of the new consumer services division and it will be an important part of the whole package,” said Youmans. “We also are continuing to develop and test our fixed wireless network in Chicago with a small number of our own employees. It is an important piece of the puzzle in terms of providing local service.
“We have a long way to go before everything is finalized and we shake out the specifics,” noted Youmans.
In order for AT&T to provide any telephone service using TCI’s cable plant, it must first be upgraded to support two-way transmissions. The task of upgrading the drop lines (the unpowered lines that come from the cable line into the home) is considered expensive and technologically complicated. There also are concerns about interference in the reverse channel of the cable wire.
Given the amount of resources that will be needed to upgrade TCI’s cable plant to support two-way transmissions, some analysts question whether a cable telephony solution for providing local service is the best way for AT&T to get into the local arena.
James W. Caruso, managing director of Media First Public Relations Inc. and a 15-year veteran of the telecom and cable industries, speculated it could take several years and billions of dollars before TCI’s cable plant is even capable of supporting telephone service.
Other cable companies such as Cox Communications Inc., Comcast Corp., Media One and Time Warner are way ahead of TCI in terms of upgrading their cable plants to support two-way transmissions, he said.
“[AT&T] will have to fight a tremendous uphill battle just to get to two-way capability, and then they are going to have to decide how they want to provide telephone service,” said Caruso.
Rather than using TCI’s cable plant to get into customer’s homes with local service, AT&T could combine its wireless local loop research and expertise with TCI’s network to provide local and mobile service using the same network, said Jed Dunbar, senior manager for sales at Sanders Telecommunications Systems, a company that provides PCS-over-cable solutions.
Using distributed antennas-or microcells-over TCI’s cable network, AT&T could provide personal communications services to its customers and extend its PCS network, much like Cox and Sprint PCS have done in Southern California. Using the same microcells, the company could use its WLL technology to reach the last mile into homes and provide local service.
The resulting service would be a kind of home-and-road phone service that allows customers to use the same handset as their local and mobile phone. Because the microcells cover a quarter-mile to a half-mile radius, customers could be billed at rates comparable to local service while in the home microcell range. When they roam outside the microcell’s range, they would be billed at a mobile rate.
Dunbar said that type of solution also helps solve some of the location problems associated with wireless enhanced 911 service.
“PCS over cable is sound, economical and working,” said Elliott Hamilton, director of U.S. telecom strategies at the Strategis Group. “AT&T and TCI definitely have to start looking at it again. AT&T has a lot built out on the cellular side, but on the PCS side they have a long way to go.”
Cable networks can be beneficial to wireless carriers because cable companies have access to certain rights of way, like telephone and electric poles. By suspending a wire between any two poles and placing an amplifier and a wireless antenna on that wire, wireless carriers can build out or expand their networks anywhere those poles exist.
“Our system allows the PCS operator to centralize all of its base stations in a central location and distribute the signal out through a community’s shared broadband network-whether it be fiber, coaxial cable or hybrid fiber,” said Sanders’ Dunbar. “It allows PCS carriers to partner with cable companies, competitive local exchange carriers or even utility companies-anyone with a fiber network.”
One of the advantages of using microcells to supplement a network, said Dunbar, is that “carriers can buy fewer, cheaper base stations bought over a long period of time.” Another advantage is that it bypasses sticky zoning ordinances and moratoria.
Cable plant is one of a handful of networks that wireless carriers can use. Ortel Corp.’s MirrorCell Fiber product takes wireless signals and converts them to optical signals capable of being transmitted on dark fiber-the unused fiber of any system. Using dark fiber means the wireless transmissions don’t take up any of the cable company’s capacity for delivering signals, said Hal Zarem, director of marketing, wireless communications, at Ortel.
Sanders also provides a PCS-over-fiber solution, which Dunbar said is viable in rural areas, while its PCS-over-cable solution works well in dense urban and suburban areas.
So far, the only market to support PCS-over-cable service is the Southern California market operated by Sprint PCS and Cox. Marty Zajic, a spokeswoman for Sprint PCS, said the system has been operating for 18 months and is performing well. PCS-over-cable technology, she said, allows the company to cover areas with difficult topography and terrain.
Dunbar said domestic and international carriers have expressed a lot of interest in Sanders’ PCS-over-cable solution, but the industry has been slow to adopt the idea.
“I can’t declare victory yet,” he said. “But I think this year we could expand beyond the Southern California network with a few big customers with small orders.
