The Federal Communications Commission awarded a spectrum license to ArrayComm Inc. to trial its i-Burst wireless Internet system in San Diego, signaling the launch of the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s broadband technology.
“Clearly we have to acquire more spectrum, but we have a plan to achieve that,” said Martin Cooper, chairman and chief executive officer of ArrayComm.
“We have tried to persuade the FCC that we have an … extraordinary, spectrally efficient air interface and a way of accommodating lots and lots of subscribers in a small amount of spectrum. We’ve persuaded them that we’re spectrally efficient and we have a new way of inviting application providers,” Cooper said.
The trial is set to begin in mid-2001 and will include approximately 3,000 paying customers. ArrayComm and its partnering application service providers will determine later how the customers will be chosen, according to David Nowicki, vice president of marketing for ArrayComm. The trial will include both consumer and business customers, Nowicki said.
Cooper said ArrayComm was granted the license under the condition it will promptly give up the spectrum if asked to by the FCC. The license also has a three-year limit.
“The intent of this trial is to demonstrate the commercial viability of an advanced technology that allows users to experience a vast range of applications and services within a portable broadband Internet system at a very low cost,” said Nitin J. Shah, ArrayComm’s executive vice president and general manager for i-Burst.
i-Burst can deliver up to 40 Megabits of data per second in a 10-megahertz slice of spectrum. The system will enable applications such as telemedicine, high-speed file transfer, streaming audio and video and networked gaming, ArrayComm said.
The company is in the process of forming partnerships with ASPs to integrate and deploy i-Burst service.
“Our first application provider will likely be Sony (Corp.). The application service providers will be the people who literally create device services for consumers and road warriors, and they will market the services and ArrayComm will provide the Internet capability,” Cooper explained. “In our case, you only deal with the application provider. You don’t have to deal with the carrier.”
Participating manufacturers will embed an i-Burst chipset in devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones and personal digital assistants. Home and lap top computers users can insert a special PCMCIA card.
ArrayComm expects i-Burst customers will pay approximately the same monthly amount as they do for dial-up Internet service.
