Nextel Communications Inc.’s next-generation plans are set to be tested by the public as the carrier is planning a network trial in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area using Flarion Technologies Inc.’s Fast Hopped Low Latency Access with Seamless Handoff, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, or Flash-OFDM, technology.
Neither company would comment on the trial, but Nextel has set up a Web site at nextelbroadband.com providing information for potential users and highlighting the service’s capabilities, including network speeds of up to three megabits per second.
The trial is scheduled to begin this month with customers approved for the trial receiving a wireless modem for either a personal computer or a PC Card for a laptop and free service for the six months the trial is scheduled to last. The Web site notes potential trial customers do not need to be current Nextel customers and that at the end of the trial, customers can continue the service if they pay for it.
In addition to the network’s high-speed access, Nextel is providing users up to seven e-mail accounts and up to 70 megabytes of online storage space as well as junk-mail filtering software.
While neither Nextel nor Flarion would comment on the trial, Nextel Chief Executive Officer Tim Donahue noted during a Lehman Brothers telecommunications conference in December that the company was looking at a number of technologies for its next-generation future and that Flarion’s solution seemed to meet the carrier’s needs.
“One technology we like very much is a technology called OFDM and it’s from a little company by the name of Flarion,” Donahue said. “We are in the process of building about 150 cell sites in a relatively large city down south and we are going to test it.”
Donahue added that if the technology, which he described as being developed by a handful of bright people in a garage, holds up to the testing, Nextel could spend between $1 billion and $1.5 billion on deploying the service beginning next year with a commercial launch expected in the 2006 time frame. The forecast spending is similar to what Verizon Wireless said it planned to spend on deploying CDMA2000 1x EV-DO across its network over the next two years.
“The intent is to have a network on the air that gives you the types of speeds that broadband delivers and to try to figure out what is the demand,” Donahue said. “Once we better understand that, it will help us decide sort of the rollout schedule that we need to put in place in order to be first to market with a real disruptive broadband technology. The mantra in this company is always to be first, to be better and to be different.”
While it’s not known what spectrum Nextel is using for the trial, Donahue hinted the carrier was looking at using its recently acquired 2.5 GHz MMDS spectrum to launch its wireless broadband network, noting the carrier had an average of 96 megahertz of spectrum in 67 of the country’s top 100 markets. Donahue added the Federal Communication Commission recently approved mobility for the 2.5 GHz band and that there was a white paper in front of the FCC that would allow pairing of channels in the spectrum.
The Flarion trial is not expected to disrupt Nextel’s plans to launch WiDEN enhancements on its current iDEN-based network by the end of this year, which the company said would provide data speeds of between 60 and 80 kilobits per second and be comparable with current CDMA2000 1x offerings.
Despite the Flash-OFDM trial, Nextel has reportedly not given up on testing other high-speed wireless data alternatives. Donahue noted in his speech that the company was looking at other technologies including CDMA-based solutions, a TD-CDMA-based technology being offered by IP Wireless and a technology based on the yet-to-be-approved 802.16 standard.
Deutsche Bank noted in a report that based on FCC documents, it believes Nextel is still testing a GSM1x/1xEv-DO solution involving Lucent Technologies Inc. and Samsung Corp., though it doubted the carrier would move down that path as the solution would not provide a competitive advantage vs. Verizon Wireless or Sprint PCS.
While some standards-based proponents have questioned the use of Flarion’s non-standards based technology architecture, industry analysts note Nextel has a successful history of being different.
“Deploying Flash-OFDM or a similar technology enables a wireless carrier to skip a generation, leap-frogging the competitors’ service offerings,” said Edward Rerisi, vice president of research at Allied Business Intelligence. “With Nextel’s history of operating against the grain, they are not committed to either the GSM or CDMA camp, freeing them to make these bold moves.”
ABI noted the network launch “sends a strong message to other wireless carriers and infrastructure vendors: The future of wireless does not revolve solely around UMTS and CDMA2000,” adding overall carrier spending on rival technologies could represent about 20 percent of overall spending before the end of the decade.
