A large, fixed wireless broadband network in several major metropolitan areas has been capitalizing on the flexibility and nimbleness of wireless as a supplement to fiber connectivity for enterprise.
Business Only Broadband, or BOB, acquired a network in 2006 that Chris Craven, COO of the company, has described as “a hodgepodge of various brands of microwave systems and switches,” with the goal of building a cohesive, high-quality network that would be of value to Fortune 500-size companies and government customers.
BOB has a large fixed wireless broadband network with about 40 transmitter sites in the Chicago area, as well as also covering Milwaukee, the New York metropolitan area and northern New Jersey. It is in the midst of a major network expansion in its existing markets, expected to last into 2014. In July, it announced a new core site in Lincolnshire, Ill. that expanded its service in that city as well as Bannockburn and parts of Lake Forest. BOB uses microwave backhaul systems from Exalt Communications Inc. for many of its network sites.
Although enterprises are often reluctant to completely substitute wireless broadband for fiber connectivity, Craven said, the idea of network diversity and redundancy with wireless broadband has been an appealing one.
“We quickly learned it was very difficult to just come in and say, ‘I want to replace your fiber,'” Craven said. “We came out of fiber, it’s a good product — but we really focus on augmenting fiber.”
BOB also capitalizes on its rapid provisioning as a selling point to serve businesses that themselves are trying to move rapidly in their respective markets with new locations, acquisitions and other such changes.
“One outstanding thing about wireless is the ability to move quickly,” Craven said. “If it doesn’t require FCC licensing, and we have towers in the area, it’s not hard for us to go out and install things in two to three days — where if [customers] place their orders with Verizon or AT&T, they’ll get them done, but it may be weeks instead of days.”
Craven said that in the wake of Sandy, the company has made inroads in the New York market because its network was resilient — about 70% of its network was unaffected by the hurricane, Craven said, with the rest attributed mostly to power loss that eventually drained back-up batteries. Post-hurricane, he added, the company was able to get its network back up quickly and customers turned to them when traditional wireline-based connectivity was slow to return due to water damage, and they’ve kept the company’s service as insurance against future outages.
Craven said that while the company does offer service in the heavily populated metropolitan areas, the existence of a wealth of fiber connections in the city centers has made price the primary competitive measure — and that BOB does best in areas where there is less competition between fiber companies, often in the suburbs where businesses may have only one fiber choice and are looking for other options.
“Where we do really well is outside the traditional area where there’s lots of fiber,” he said. “When you get out into the suburbs … there isn’t any diversification or competition, and that’s where we become very valuable.”
He said that business customers are also becoming more savvy about connectivity choices — and that even when they have a choice of providers, they may very well do the research to find out that fiber lines from different companies are laid in the same trench, opening them up to the same vulnerabilities and making wireless broadband a desirable and different option.
“I think microwave is seeing a real resurgence in connectivity,” he said. “I think it’s found a place with fiber and the other technologies that people are using.”
