No more MMDS fixed wireless networks?

Thu Oct 4 04:58:30 UTC 2001

If they actually did this, it is about time they finally woke up and 
smelled the coffee.

There is pretty much no way any wireless (or free space optical) 
technology is going to compete with wireline (including FTH) in an area 
where there is abundant infrastructure. The capacity in  fixed wireless 
technologies even with the latest advances in technology including MIMO 
antenna arrays, CDMA etc is just not there. When you start talking 
mobile wireless data delivery, the price/performance ratio changes 
making wireless delivery of information profitable provided that you 
don't pay XXX billion dollars for bandwidth. Another alternative is 
using fixed wireless in areas without infrastructure including 
continents other than North America.

I once participated in a similar analysis for another broadband fixed 
wireless delivery network and the capacity to support enough subscribers 
such that the scheme broke even was simply unsupportable in the spectrum 
that was allocated for the system given the power and antenna size 
restrictions.

Bora Akyol

On Wednesday, October 3, 2001, at 04:36 , Christopher J. Wolff wrote:

>
> Hello folks,
>
> I heard today that Sprint is ready to capitulate to the FCC and 
> reassign the
> radio spectrum it occupies in most major markets (MMDS) to mobile 
> use.  I
> guess they will be shutting off the Sprint Broadband Internet product 
> in 30
> days.  Can anyone corroborate this?
>
> Regards,
> Christopher J. Wolff, VP, CIO
> Broadband Laboratories, Inc.
> http://www.bblabs.com
> email:chris at bblabs.com
> phone:520.622.4338 x234
>