High-speed technology race

By PETER GRIFFIN

Walker Wireless says it is not fazed by Broadcast Communications' developing relationship with rival technology provider Airspan, and hopes to sign a co-location agreement with BCL to secure a national network for its emerging wireless service soon.

Walker Wireless' managing director and founder, Rod Inglis, said the company would need to place its equipment on a mix of BCL towers, Vodafone cell sites and high buildings if it was to provide the nationwide high-speed wireless service it is starting to test in Auckland.

Talks were still under way to secure access to BCL's towers, something Inglis pointed out was mandated in the Telecommunications Act anyway.

"We fully expect we'll get an excellent co-location deal with BCL. And we think we'll get good backhaul prices too," he said.

BCL said last week that it was adding an IP (internet protocol) layer to its national wireless network in a $5 million deal with Ericsson. It had also formed a partnership with US company Airspan, to provide the devices that people would use to receive wireless broadband.

BCL and Walker Wireless are both tendering for business in 14 regions to bring high-speed internet to schools but in effect will be competing to put attractive proposals to the Government using their differing technology.

BCL's technical director, Keith Ladyman, said the company intended to "act like a hotel chain", housing those providers who wanted to do business - tower space permitting.

Inglis was reluctant to compare IP Wireless' technology with that of Airspan's. But the fact that the USB-based IP Wireless modems were portable and offered higher data speeds made them more versatile technology in comparison, he said.

The IP Wireless modems could handle download speeds of up to 3Mbps (megabits per second).

Airspan's regional manager, Grant Stepa, said BCL was testing Airspan's equipment in trials in South Taranaki and Southland, at data speeds of 128Kbps (kilobits per second), increasing to 512Kbps and as high as 2Mbps over distances of up to 50km.

But Airspan's technology would boast the advantage of offering voice over internet protocol (VoIP) from deployment. Walker Wireless will offer voice further down the track.

Inglis said IP Wireless had been ahead of its time in developing its technology under the TDD (time division duplexing) wideband CDMA standard, while the mobile vendors concentrated on FDD (frequency division duplexing), a standard geared to voice transmission.

"A few years ago IP Wireless picked up on the standard while Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola put all their resources into developing FDD cellphones and infrastructure."

As Walker Wireless prepares to begin testing high-speed wireless modems in Auckland, US wireless carrier Sprint is nearing the end of trials involving the same IP Wireless technology.

The vice-president of Sprint Broadband Direct, Sheldon Fisher, said trials had been taking place in Montreal using CDMA-based IP Wireless modems in the 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz spectrum band, in conjunction with Canadian operator Inukshuk.

Sprint's requirements for the wireless service it eventually hopes to provide include non-line-of-sight technology that offered high data speeds, portability and could be installed by the user.

The same pocket-sized modems that Walker Wireless will deliver to trial participants had also been used by Sprint.

Fisher said the IP Wireless technology used advanced signal-processing methods that maintained a strong signal and high data rates over large coverage areas with dense vegetation and buildings.

In Houston, Sprint was testing similar technology from Navini Networks that offered "multimegabit data rates within cellular ranges".

Navini used a phased array antenna technology to increase power and minimise interference.

Fisher would not say which technology was favoured at this stage because the trials had not yet reached their conclusion.

"While we have not released trial results, overall we have been pleased with the results of all the trials we have conducted."

He would not specify the IP Wireless technology's effective range from base stations.

Sprint was aware of Airspan but had not conducted any formal trials with the Florida-based company.

Inglis said Walker Wireless' plans to develop wireless "hotspots", where users of laptops and handheld computers could connect wirelessly to the internet in hotels, airport lounges and restaurants, were progressing slowly.

"Too many people have gone broke in that area. Demand for hotspots will be driven once there are more Wi-Fi devices out there," he said.

That would be a year or two away, and airport lounges offered most promise at this stage.

"All the evidence around the world says that if you build it before the demand is there, you'll go broke."