At the heart of all the hoopla and back patting over the success of wireless communications lies a critical problem that could bring the industry to a standstill-spectrum.
With the advent of wireless Internet applications, the rush by carriers to snatch up as much spectrum as possible before it all disappears is full-on, but there is relief in sight.
Led by cellular pioneer Martin Cooper, ArrayComm in San Jose, Calif., is developing a new solution called i-Burst to help make the spectrum we have do more for less.
“The only really effective way to get people to talk on less spectrum is to reuse,” said Cooper.
Based on the company’s IntelliCell technology, i-Burst works on any personal communications system to deliver a signal directly to the receiver, instead of broadcasting it in all directions. The technology is fundamentally software that works by using multiple antennas that combine the signals.
It operates on as little as 5 megahertz of unpaired spectrum, and according to the company, will outperform today’s cellular solutions by more than 400 times, and third-generation solutions by more than 40 times.
A typical deployment will deliver in excess of 40 Megabits per second of data throughput per cell and provide connection to the Internet at user data rates in excess of 1 Mbps, ArrayComm said.
“Just as telephones are moving from the desk and other fixed applications, the Internet is becoming an extremely valuable personal tool. The Internet must be wireless,” said Cooper. “We’re suggesting that we could provide the same service that people get today from Internet service providers and for the same kind of data, we could deliver 1 Mbps and portability for the same price-about $20 a month,” Cooper said.
The focus on smaller markets is important to ArrayComm and key to its marketing strategy.
“We are really attacking a market that no one has addressed-the consumer, the small office or home office, and the extensions of local area networks. Third-generation cellular is aimed for the mobility market,” Cooper said.
Companies such as Metricom Inc. have similar technologies, but Cooper said their applications are designed for larger buildings and move data at rates of 120 kilobits per second.
“The other key thing about i-Burst is it’s an open platform. We invite application developers to invent new ways of accessing the Internet wirelessly. We want to make this a very friendly environment,” said Cooper.
Potential applications for i-Burst include e-shopping, high-bandwidth streaming audio and video, networked 3D gaming, emergency services and connection to office LANs.
