SAN FRANCISCO-A decidedly different feeling surrounded the Broadband Wireless World Forum in San Francisco last week compared with last year, when the industry’s exuberance could hardly be contained by its 1,600 or so attendees.
This year, the show, sponsored by Shorecliff Communications Inc., more than doubled in size, but the 3,400 attendees had a more somber outlook on the broadband wireless industry, one that partially arose from the beating many telecommunication companies took on Wall Street during the latter half of 2000.
While it was made very clear that broadband wireless is still the “next big thing” in voice and data access and delivery, carriers and vendors are taking a much more realistic outlook as to when broadband wireless will become mainstream, and companies in the space will start to turn a profit.
“It’s still not totally clear what the right fit for wireless access is,” said George Henry, Alcatel’s vice president of business development, fixed wireless business unit, during the conference’s kick-off address.
Henry noted that widespread point-to-multipoint deployments have yet to materialize in the Untied States, and as a result, there is no indisputable proof for the point-to-multipoint business case. Henry cited the lack of deployable equipment-a problem mentioned often throughout the three-day conference-as the main culprit. He also blamed rooftop access for holding carriers back.
“The cost of the roof breaks the business case,” Henry said.
David Frank, president and chief operating officer of Fuzion Wireless, reiterated Henry’s concerns about rooftop access rights and the difficulties of getting landlord and/or building owner approval, during a subsequent roundtable discussion titled, “Real-life Results From Broadband Wireless Operators.” Fuzion offers wireless broadband service in unlicensed frequencies.
“It’s easy to sell services to the end user, but then you need to get through the gatekeeper,” Frank said.
Equipment installation will continue to be a challenge for broadband wireless carriers going forward, but educating the building owner and potential customers on the benefits of wireless broadband could expedite the installation process. If the demand is there, building owners are more open to rooftop siting, the panel concluded.
The conference wasn’t without some controversy. A debate is currently bouncing around the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.16.3 subcommittee about the standard for sub-11 GHz networks. The committee is considering proposals from several camps that call for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing as well as single carrier solutions. Wi-Lan Inc. founded the OFDM Forum, which is championing the cause of its patented wideband OFDM technology, while Cisco Systems Inc. and its Broadband Wireless Internet Forum are pushing for a vector OFDM solution.
During a breakout session called “Contrasting Non-line-of-sight Technology Approaches,” Wi-Lan’s chairman and chief executive officer, Hatim Zagloul, and Ender Ayanoglu, chairman of the BWIF, exchanged angry words over Cisco’s lack of cooperation with the rest of the standards bodies. At one point, Zagloul even threatened to sue Cisco, demonstrating his obvious frustration with the BWIF’s unwillingness to compromise, but the discussion soon calmed down.
A controversial topic waiting in the wings is the possible multichannel multipoint distribution frequency spectrum reallocation for third-generation cellular services, as highlighted by Stephen E. Coran, a lawyer with Rini, Coran & Lancellotta in Washington, D.C., during his presentation on the Federal Communications Commission in the new administration.
MMDS carriers Sprint Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Nucentrix Corp. are opposing the reallocation, not only because they paid millions to acquire their spectrum, but there also is no suitable alternative spectrum for MMDS. Coran said the U.S. government will have to take a serious look at giving up some of its Department of Defense spectrum for 3G.
Overall, government regulation is sparse in the broadband wireless industry. The new Republican-controlled FCC, led by Michael Powell, will take a less activist approach than the FCC guided by William Kennard, so it will be up to the broadband wireless companies themselves to establish policies and create an environment under which rooftops can be accessed and spectrum-especially unlicensed-can be shared without interference, Coran said.
