WASHINGTON-A group of wireless and telecommunications executives are planning to roll out a new service they hope will lead to residential wireless broadband service with what could be megabit data rates.
The market for Burst Wireless Inc. are those customers that cannot get access to either digital subscriber lines or cable modems.
“This is for the people that get forgotten. We are going to be able to bridge the digital divide in a cost-effective way,” said George Tronsrue, Burst’s chairman and chief executive officer.
The business model calls for the technology to be “plug-n-play.” One vision is that it will be about the size of a mobile-phone handset and velcro to the back of a laptop.
The technology will be portable but not mobile, said Richard Compton, Burst’s chief technology officer, formerly of Lucent Technologies Inc. This differs from Qualcomm Inc.’s High Data Rate technology. HDR would allow the user to obtain high-speed data while as a passenger in a car or train. While Compton said Burst is looking at HDR, “we would see stripping away the mobility to get a broader pipe.”
Burst’s business plan piggy-backs on the wireless infrastructure already in place and other services will be outsourced, Tronsrue said. “We are going to be able to outsource a lot of things that five years ago we would have had to do in-house,” he said.
In addition to preparing a business model and doing technical research, Burst has been involving itself in the policy debate around whether the scheduled re-auction of personal communications services licenses formerly won by bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc. should be restricted to small businesses.
As a designated entity, Burst believes the re-auction should be restricted. But if the FCC is bent on letting large carriers bid, Tronsrue said DEs should be allowed to bid on 20-megahertz licenses in all of the markets (not the top 19 as proposed) and that all F-block 10- megahertz licenses should be reserved for DEs.
Regardless of the FCC proceeding, Burst plans to roll out service. Success in the re-auction would allow it to accelerate its business plan, Tronsrue said. “We are going to go forward with or without the re-auction,” he predicted.
Burst Wireless was founded in 1999 as Burst Networks by the Mayfield Fund and telecommunications executives including David Hsiao. Hsiao once worked for Nextel Communications Inc.
As Burst Networks, the company raised money and developed a business plan. Tronsrue joined in January after leaving NextLink Communications Inc. when it moved its headquarters from the Seattle area to the Washington, D.C. area.
“When I left NextLink in September, because I didn’t want to move, I thought I would semi-retire and then David came along … We are going to be able to bridge the digital divide in a cost effective way. [This is a] very unique and compelling business offering,” said Tronsrue.
Burst plans to soon begin testing its service in field trials in Port Angeles, Wash. with full service introduced in about a year. The company has signed a letter of intent with an unnamed wireless service provider to serve 13 markets, Tronsrue said. He hopes to complete the agreement soon.
