Verizon Looks Toward Broadband Fixed Wireless

Verizon Communications believes broadband fixed wireless (BFW) technologies are nearly ready to move from trial to commercial deployment, said Brian Whitton, Executive Director, Network Platform Evaluation and Access Technology, Verizon Communications. Speaking in a keynote address at the Broadband Wireless World 2003 conference in San Jose, California, Whitton said BFW will provide a new access option to residential customers not easily or economically served by ADSL. He expects BFW to have the greatest impact in rural areas across the Verizon territory or where remote terminals or the local loop carriers require extensive upgrading to serve a small pool of potential users. Whitton noted positive results from a BFW trial in Northern Virginia launched by Verizon during the summer of 2002. The trial, which covered a topographically difficult terrain using Verizon's WCS licensed spectrum, successfully "validated the physics" of non-line-of-sight, spectrally-efficient technology. Over 90% of homes in the expected service area were able to receive broadband access at rates from 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps. The furthest trial participant was located over 9 miles from the nearest of two towers. Verizon has now ended this trial and issued an RFP to vendors. Final selection of a fixed wireless network supplier is expected in the coming weeks. Whitton expects Verizon will launch a commercial BFW residential service before the end of the year. One issue that remains is that most cellular towers were deployed along highways to maximize convenience to drivers. BFW systems need to target neighborhoods. Whitton's wish list for the industry includes: design base stations that are modular, enabling quick scaling of the network; provide solutions for integrating the customer and loop qualification process into the carrier OSS; do more to push reliability of equipment to five 9s reliability; drive down CPE pricing to fit the consumer price points that are driving the Wi-Fi phenomenon.
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