What do Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Tampa, Fla., and Washington, D.C., have in common? They are the initial market launches for XO Holdings Inc.’s new wireless broadband service, dubbed Nextlink.
XO Holdings said its new subsidiary will serve both mobile and wireline operators, along with businesses and government agencies. Nextlink said it plans to use licensed local multipoint distribution system wireless spectrum in the 28 GHz to 31 GHz range covering 75 markets in the United States during the next two years to offer wireless broadband as an alternative to conventional broadband delivered over copper or fiber.
This is the second time XO has tried to use its LMDS holdings to provide fixed-wireless services. In 1999, the company spent about $1 billion to acquire its LMDS spectrum, but it was never put into use due to market factors. The company held on to the spectrum, which is not being used by Nextlink.
This is also the second time around for the Nextlink company name. In the late 1990s, XO Communications was known as Nextlink, until Nextlink merged with Concentric and the companies became XO.
Nextlink’s services debut as the market forces of competition and convergence place new demands on organizations to provide high-capacity, next-generation services more cost-effectively over their networks. These demands include supporting mobility applications and content, as well as finding new local broadband access alternatives to incumbent telephone companies. Nextlink said it expects to fill a gap for customers that require higher speed broadband access but are constrained by the limitations of copper and fiber. The company pointed out that last-mile copper connections do not scale to meet high bandwidth demands, while fiber is costly and time-consuming to deploy, or simply not available.
For wireless operators, Nextlink said it provides a cost-effective and reliable alternative to copper-based backhaul connectivity to cellular sites as well as offering an additional layer of network redundancy. Customers can also seamlessly transition from wireless T-1 to wireless Ethernet to support more advanced mobility applications and content.
Nextlink described its wireless network architecture as consisting of wireless hubs connected to a wireline IP network and remote terminals located at the customer’s building or cellular site. Carrier-grade point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communications between hubs and receivers can span a distance up to seven miles. Radio receivers support both T-1 and Ethernet, easing the transition from circuit-switched, TDM networks to an IP infrastructure. The company explained that for locations up to seven miles and in line-of-sight of a Nextlink wireless hub, the company provides wireless broadband services with speeds from 1.544 megabits per second up to 622 Mbps.
“We believe we’re hitting the market at the right time,” said Tom Cady, president of Nextlink. “Backhaul impacts about 20 percent of the carriers’ bottom line. And with all the natural and unnatural disasters that have taken place, carriers want redundancy and security in their networks. We feel we can provide that with wireless offerings. Also, with all the high-bandwidth data applications hitting the market, it’s important to understand that less than 20 percent of all buildings are connected by fiber, and here we come with a wireless Ethernet offering.”
When asked about market differentiation, Cady said, “The market is hungry for bandwidth. We’re offering access technology with greater capacity than copper. Our offering provides reliability and scalability, because it’s easy to add to. And it’s cost effective, impacting the top and bottom lines for carriers while providing a migration path to IP. Another factor is our licensed spectrum-we are the largest fixed-wireless spectrum holder-we have spectrum in 75 markets with 1GHz in each market.
Today Nextlink said it’s providing broadband wireless services to a national wireless company, delivering wireless backhaul and network redundancy and diversity services across markets in south Florida.
The company said it chose Cisco Systems Inc. along with Hughes Network Systems L.L.C. as its equipment suppliers.
XO Communications L.L.C., which is owned by XO Holdings and provides national and local telecommunications services to businesses, large enterprises and telecommunications companies, said it plans to leverage Nextlink’s broadband wireless technology to expand the reach of its network and to help reduce local regulatory network access costs for its enterprise customers.
In partnership with Nextlink, XO said it plans to use fixed-wireless technology to deliver business-grade broadband services. Nextlink’s fixed-wireless network is set to serve as an extension of XO’s national IP network, allowing XO to serve business locations within seven miles of a wireless hub and reduce the need to lease local access facilities from incumbent operators. XO said it will connect its IP network to Nextlink wireless hubs, which will connect to radio receivers located at customer locations.
“Fixed wireless technology has finally arrived to help solve critical issues facing our industry and to offer customers a cost-effective, more scalable and reliable alternative access method to receive broadband services,” said Carl Grivner, chief executive officer of XO Holdings. “For XO, broadband wireless will be an extension of our national, facilities-based IP network, giving us a silver bullet that will allow us to serve virtually any customer within visible range of each wireless hub and help reduce the local access costs we typically pay to local incumbents.”
XO said it plans to begin offering the service during the second quarter in a half-dozen markets with service availability in additional markets as Nextlink builds out its wireless network infrastructure.
