ATLANTA-Broadband Internet service provider Advanced Radio Telecom Corp. announced plans to test Triton Network Systems Inc.’s consecutive point 100 Mbps radio as part of a trial broadband network platform providing Internet access to selected businesses in Silicon Valley.
The study will evaluate reliability, quality and cost-effectiveness of deploying consecutive point-based wireless networks using Triton’s Invisible Fiber Internet products, said the company. The trial, which includes five multi-tenant buildings, will begin this month and last for about 90 days.
Triton’s fixed wireless system is designed to connect several buildings into a ring configuration using a point-to-point-to-point design. The company compares its Invisible Fiber product to a SONET ring architecture in the fiber-optic cable environment.
“As we announced recently, ART will be accelerating its plans to build broadband wireless metropolitan area networks in 40 of the top 50 communications markets over the next few years,” said Henry C. Hirsch, chairman and chief executive officer of ART. “With the successful completion of the Triton Invisible Fiber Internet trial, we intend to incorporate their radio into our network as one of several potential technologies to best serve our customers.
“Consecutive point architecture should allow us to deliver broadband (Internet protocol) connectivity to businesses at a price far less than currently available in the marketplace,” continued Hirsch.
At least five of Triton’s financial investors also were involved in a $251 million equity investment announced earlier this month in ART. Qwest Communications International Inc. also was involved in the ART investment.
Triton President and CEO Brian J. Andrew said the company’s solution is designed to bring faster access to the Internet and Internet applications at an affordable price to businesses.
The goal, he said, is to move the traffic bottleneck that is now in the last mile instead to the computer.
“High-speed Internet access will no longer be only for the deep pocketed,” said Andrew. “Invisible Fiber brings speed to the business masses.”
Triton said the key to providing affordable connections at 100 Mbps is the ability for a carrier to charge customers for “bytes-carried” rather than typical flat-rate billing. Each customer will have a 100 BaseT Ethernet connection and can be charged on a tiered basis, said the company.
For example, a company with between five and 16 employees might choose to receive a 100 Mbps connection for a base monthly fee of $250, allowing usage of up to 2000 Megabytes. Additional usage would then be charged at 15 cents per Megabyte.
“This increased speed will significantly change business dynamics,” continued Andrew. “Think about how much time you spend downloading files via the Internet. At 100 Mbps, the download is quicker than your personal computer.”
Triton compared the download of a 25 Megabyte file on a T1 connection (1.544 Mbps) with its 100 Mbps solution, said Andrew. The T1 took eight minutes to download what the 100 Mbps took 10 seconds to download, said the company.
“In fact, the personal computer took longer to save the download to its hard disk than it took to initially download from the Internet,” said Andrew.
Triton’s solution is available for 38 GHz, local multipoint distribution services and local multipoint communication systems carriers.
