Wireless at 15Mb/s

[Russ Smith]

One of the great problems in broadband connectivity is the so-called "last mile." It's easy to connect people who are located within the threashold distanct from a switching station to DSL. It's easy to connect people within a cable distribution to cable-modem. For people outside those boundaries, there's no easy way to get wireless. That's the reason for a lot of research into high-speed wireless connectivity. This and truly mobile connectivity has also driven cellular companies into the 3rd generation mobile systems that promised high-speed cellular data channels -- something which Europe and Japan have in some extent but is largely lacking in the US and Canada.

The newest entry into wide-area wireless is a system developed by IPWireless in California. The system uses 4th generation TD-CDMA technology as the carrier. Although the CDMA technology was developed for cellular data transfers, IPWireless doesn't connect via cellular phone. It uses a small palm-sized modem which provides throughput up to 15.7Mb/s. In real-life use the throughput is more like 5Mb/s but that still figures well against cable-modem's 3Mb/s and DSL's 1.5Mb/s. IPWireless isn't some theoretical prototype technology either. There are already working installations of the technolgy in Missoula, MT, Jacksonville, FL, San Francisco CA, and even Maui, Hawii.

IPWireless' TD-CDMA also has the capacity to blur the line between traditional broadband providers and traditional cellular providers. It works over a cellular-type wireless infra-structure, but it provides a broadband-type connection off the modem. Either broadband or cellular providers could provide IPWireless hardware and connectivity without conflicting with their traditional services. TD-CDMA is truly data-centric, but, like any broadband connection, you can use Voice Over Internet Protocol to make phone calls.

One thing the advent of this technology shows is how open the wireless connectivity area yet is. Wireless has yet to undergo a major shake-down where one clear standard emerges. The resulting confluence of competing possibilities makes it unwise to simply pick one standard and hope that it survives. The market will favor flexibility and the ability to use multiple connectivity options for some time.