CHESTERFIELD, Mo.-The cable TV and wireless industries are poised to dominate the high-
speed Internet access market, according to Datacomm Research Co.’s report, “Bandwidth Bonanza: High-Speed
Internet Access Technologies, Markets and Vendors.”
“The cable TV industry, with its broadband
hybrid fiber-coax networks, and the wireless industry, with new spectrum and digital technology, are redefining local
access markets,” said Ira Brodsky, president of Datacomm Research. “Traditional telcos, long regarded as
harmful monopolies, will slowly wither and die as local access shifts from circuit-based, narrowband services to
[Internet Protocol]-based, broadband services.”
The Datacomm study examines nine leading candidates for
high-speed Internet access, including cable data, xDSL, millimeter wave radio, third-generation cellular and personal
communications services, wireless cable TV, fixed satellite, data broadcasting, wireless local area network-based
access and infrared-based access.
One of the conclusions of the study is that wireless slowly will become the top
broadband access platform. Teligent Inc. and WinStar Communications Inc., as well as digital cellular and PCS
operators and entrepreneurs using wireless LAN technology and sky-based solutions-such as Teledesic Corp.’s-are
poised to be the big winners, said the report.
“Wireless operators can provision service quicker, exploit
superior cost-efficiency point-to-multipoint operation and continuously upgrade their infrastructure,” said the
report. “The spectrum shortage is over.”
