Fixed Wireless Broadband - What Is It, And What Can It Do?
It's a fact that most of the hoopla concercing wireless broadband has been focused on Wi-Fi networking for the past few years. However, another kind of wireless technology has been quietly waiting in the wings for years. Fixed wireless broadband delivers data over a wireless microwave connection between two fixed points. Some pundits are claiming that it's finally poised for explosive growth. Originally thought of only as an alternative to cable or satellite TV, fixed wireless's best use now appears to be providing high speed broadband Internet connections to both residences and businesses. Fixed-wireless broadband uses a wireless Internet connection between the transmitting base station and a receiver at the customer's location to transmit data. This method of transmission provides end users with an always on connection that uses the radio wave spectrum frequencies raging from the 2 GHz to 42 GHz frequency. Fixed wireless broadband service is also becoming more and more widely available at airports, city parks, bookstores, and other public locations called hotspots.
Fixed wireless could be an ideal soution for providing high-speed Internet services to business and residential subscribers. Also known as wireless cable and broadband wireless local loop, it can have some advantages over DSL and cable in certain situations. This technology's best use is now thought to be in using long range transmitters to provide broadband service to remote or lightly populated areas where installing the infrastructure necessary to provide cable or DSL service isn't economically feasible. This type of technology provides throughput speeds that can exceed those of T1 lines over a maximum range of about 30 miles under optimal conditions.
Some experts feel that fixed wireless has the ability to rapidly introduce high speed Internet data access to a metropolitan area without the investment of time or money required by more typical broadband installations. As new markets are found, providers are gaining the ability to deliver new and improved products that offer faster speeds and additional features, which is helping interest to move past the previous limited 'technology enthusiast' market. Hundreds of locations around the globe now enjoy fixed wireless systems that operate in the normally unlicensed lower frequency spectrum. However, because the technology frequently makes use of that unlicensed spectrum, there's no legal mechanism for abating interference, whether accidental or not.
Fixed wireless broadband may be almost ideally suited for, and has seen some interest from, high speed providers as a more economical 'last-mile' broadband solution. Last-mile is the industry terminology for the last leg of the cable route that runs from the distribution box into the customer's location. In terms of performance, fixed wireless allows for downstream connections as fast as 155 Mbs under optimal conditions — faster than currently available T1, cable or DSL lines.
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