Showing posts with label WISPs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WISPs. Show all posts

Thursday, August 10, 2023

California, Vermont on the right path prioritizing FTTP

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) presented its draft 5-year plan to connect the state’s unserved with broadband using the $1.86 billion BEAD funding it received, and at the same time warned the total $4 billion available in state and federal funding won't be enough.

Critics of “the fiber-above all” approach have called the CPUC’s concerns “unsurprising.”

“The fiber lobby has done a great job of pitching itself as kind of the end-all, be-all, and it does have a lot of great case study for it. But there are other opportunities that can come along,” said the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association’s (WISPA) state advocacy manager for California, Steve Schwerbel.

Colorado BEAD plan is ‘agnostic’ to fiber versus fixed wireless

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) have been a valuable stopgap for widespread deficits in landline advanced telecommunications infrastructure, first coming on the scene about two decades ago when telephone companies instead of fiber deployed digital subscriber line (DSL) technology that couldn't reach many customer locations over their aging copper delivery infrastructure.

But federal policy should regard them as just that and not subsidize them going forward, particularly in any major federal infrastructure improvement initiative such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

They grapple with a difficult business model in which they must purchase landline backhaul at high cost or use microwave. That forces them to offer service at high monthly rates in limited areas in order to profitably operate, hindering affordable access to even what the federal government deems basic access. They also face technical challenges of terrain and foliage growth that blocks wireless signals from reliably reaching end user premises, limiting their potential customer base and promoting churn off. And most importantly, limitations on bandwidth imposed by radio spectrum physics that does not allow them to feasibly accommodate growing bandwidth demand.

California and other states such as Vermont are demonstrating the correct, forward looking approach to set fiber to the premises (FTTP) as the standard for advanced telecommunications delivery infrastructure.

Thursday, December 09, 2021

IIJA challenge process sets stage for battles between WISPs and telcos

The advanced telecommunications infrastructure (ATI) component of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) allows for challenges of proposed projects that request states award 75 percent grant subsidies appropriated for ATI in the bill. Challengers can claim a proposed project does not meet the funding eligibility standard of at least 80 percent of premises within the project scope as being “unserved." That's defined as being unable to obtain reliable service with a minimum throughput of 25 Mbps/3Mbps with latency sufficient to support real-time, interactive applications. The statute authorizes states to adjudicate challenges. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration can reverse state determinations and modify the challenge process.

The challenge process sets the stage for battles between fixed Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) and telephone companies once the funding becomes available next year. Verizon, AT&T are looking at C-band spectrum as a cheaper alternative to building fiber to the home. Should these telcos seek IIJA grant subsidies to expand their fixed premise wireless presence using C-band spectrum as AT&T CEO John Stankey suggested this week, WISPs could conceivably contest proposed projects as ineligible because WISPs already offer service meeting the minimum throughput standard. WISPs could use the same rationale to challenge proposed telco fiber to the premise (FTTP) builds using IIJA subsidy funds. Either way, FTTP deployment – already decades behind where it should be in terms of modernizing legacy copper telephone lines and building capacity for future bandwidth demand – would be further delayed.

WISPs are likely to view both IIJA subsidized telco expansion scenarios as an existential threat to their business model. Telcos could easily undercut their relatively high monthly rates for fixed prem wireless service. Telcos also benefit from greater economies of scale and lower costs since they could deploy their own fiber backhaul circuits. And telco owned FTTP would decimate WISPs since most customers would quickly switch to telco fiber once it became available and at lower monthly rates than WISP service. 

The forthcoming fixed wireless fights -- and most importantly the prolonged delay of modernizing copper to fiber -- could be avoided if the IIJA was revised to establish an FTTP infrastructure subsidy eligibility standard rather than the throughput-based standard in the bill as enacted.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

WISP runs into opposition in Georgia

For many areas of the U.S., terrestrial wireless Internet Protocol telecom infrastructure offers an interim solution until fiber to the premises wireline plant can be built. Particularly for those areas that lie outside the footprints of telco DSL and cable service.

But terrestrial wireless service for homes and businesses has its downsides. Achieving decent throughput, adequate backhaul and attractive price points have posed challenges for many Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs).

In addition, wireless IP signals often can't reliably penetrate terrain, foliage and even municipal building codes as one wireless provider recently discovered to its chagrin. The Marietta Georgia planning commission turned down a request by American Broadband Communications LLC, for a variance that would allow the WISP to erect a 150-foot-high tower, the Parkersburg News and Sentinel reports.

Marietta should like other U.S. local governments concerned about tall towers springing up in residential areas like Lafayette (Louisiana), Ashland (Oregon) and a muni consortium in Utah find a way to get fiber to homes and businesses, either directly or in partnership with private providers or nonprofit telecom cooperatives.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Telco wireless broadband's role is mobile, not premises solution

Here's a great article that ran a couple of days ago at App-Rising putting wireless broadband into proper perspective. Namely that its primary role is to serve as a mobile form of connectivity. Technologically when it comes to delivering bandwidth, it currently cannot come close to competing with wireline and particularly fiber optic for premises service.

The article also links to recent household survey results showing that mobile broadband is viewed more as a luxury whereas premises broadband as a necessity with few willing to cut the cord but far more willing to forgo mobile broadband to save money.

Finally, the piece points up where the real inadequacies lie in the U.S. telecommunications: its wireline infrastructure. These inadequacies have themselves hampered mobile broadband services such as those offered with the iPhone that become saturated due to insufficient wireline backhaul capacity.

While the App-Rising article is written in the context of telco delivered mobile broadband, it should be mentioned that fixed terrestrial wireless broadband provided by Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) plays an important role in serving premises as an interim solution. It provides connectivity to those located in unserved areas where no wireline broadband exists and will likely continue to do so until fiber is extended to these premises. But like telco mobile broadband providers, WISPs also suffer from technological and cost limitations for their wireline backhaul, making it difficult for them to offer appealing price points and a range of robust throughput tiers.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Telco plans LTE for fixed premises broadband

FierceBroadbandWireless reports CenturyTel CEO Glen Post told the publicly traded telcos's quarterly conference call that it will deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE) aka 4G cellular broadband in 2010 as a platform to serve fixed premises customers in rural areas. CenturyTel serves small and mid-sized markets in 25 states, according to its Web site.

If this really occurs and isn't yet another of the vaporware technology claims common in the wireless broadband world, it could provide a superior interim fixed premises broadband pipe in broadband black holes until these areas can be wired for fiber optic cable plant.

Currently 3G cellular broadband plays that role in some areas lacking wireline delivered broadband. But it's more appropriate for mobile broadband than for fixed premises users given the tradeoffs of relatively slow throughput speeds, high latency and low bandwidth caps. Locally owned and operated fixed terrestial Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), which also presently play a major role in bridging the broadband gap created by the limited technological reach of DSL and the limited service area footprints of cable companies, aren't likely to be competitive with 4G where it's deployed.

If it can deliver with good latency numbers, LTE could also offer better coverage than 3G since it will utilize 700 MHz radio spectrum that was purchased by CenturyTel Broadband Wireless and other telcos such as AT&T and Verizon in federal auctions conducted last year. The spectrum was formerly used for television signals and is noted for its robust ability to carry through rolling terrian and trees and buildings.

LTE will also potentially offer far higher thoughput -- in the range of 10-15 Mbps, according to Sidecut Reports. That's at least five times faster than what's currently available from 3G and WISPs.

Friday, January 23, 2009

The challenge facing WISPs

While fixed terrestrial wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) are well situated to pick up where DSL has derailed on the route to fiber to the premises (FTTP), their major challenge going forward is to provide users decent connectivity at an attractive price point. Especially as consumers and businesses become more frugal in the current economic contraction.

The challenge is evident in the case of one WISP that recently expanded into your blogger's area of El Dorado County, California. When I mentioned Central Valley Broadband in a Dec. 3, 2008 post, the WISP was offering 3 Mbs service to telco neglected SOHOs (Small Office/Home Office) at a relatively appealing monthly rate of $60.

According to the company's Web site, that's no longer the case. Now its best business plan offers 2 Mbs down and 1 Mbs up -- at the much higher price of $130 a month. A lower priced business plan at $90 a month provides throughput of 1 Mbs down and 512 Kbs up.

While some SOHOs might be willing to pay that price, it's likely to give pause to others and limit the company's growth prospects in the SOHO segment. Additionally, neither of these nominally businsess grade plans meet the minimum wireless connectivity standards of 3 Mbs down and 1 Mbs up established for California Advanced Services Fund subsidies or for grant funding under federal economic stimulus legislation curently making its way through Congress. Nor do any of the company's consumer plans, which start out at $40 a month for 512 Kbs down and 256 Kbs up and go up to $90 a month for 1.5 Mbs down and 1 Mbs up. The latter plan might barely support video downloads depending on the latency. But even if it proves adequate, late adopter residential users currently on dial up aren't likely to be motivated to pay nearly 100 bucks a month in order to watch YouTube and NetFlix video at minimum recommended throughput.

For WISPs hoping to pick up significant numbers of customers in the years before FTTP is widely established (and be perceived as a superior alternative to the crippled and costly connectivity of satellite Internet) their challenge is to offer services with both decent throughput and attractive pricing. Otherwise their growth prospects are severely constrained and self limiting.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Fixed terrestrial wireless supplanting DSL as interim premises broadband technology

When it was widely introduced starting nearly a decade ago, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) was viewed by telcos as an ideal interim broadband technology on the road to Fiber To The Premises (FTTP) and a means to utilize their existing investment in copper cable plant over the last mile. But since telcos are many years behind where they should be in deploying FTTP, DSL became more of a permanent thoroughfare rather than temporary byway.

The problem is DSL has not been able to adequately fulfill that role due to technological limitations that restrict its range and require the use of near pristine copper that's in increasingly short supply as telcos' decades-old cable plants grow old and frazzled.

Now fixed terrestrial wireless is poised to take the place of DSL as the preferred transitional technology on the way to FTTP, starting in areas where DSL cannot due to its notorious handicaps. Over the past few years, a large number of mom and pop Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) offering fixed terrestrial wireless via over unlicensed spectrum have sprung up, exploiting DSL's far more limited geographical reach and providing a faster and less costly connectivity than satellite Internet. The big telcos have also incidentally picked up some fixed premises customers with their mobile wireless 3G broadband offerings, but don't represent a threat to the WISPs due to high latencies and bandwidth usage caps.

The proliferation of WISPs as a substitute for DSL is evident in this blogger's area of El Dorado County, California where one, Central Valley Broadband, is offering 3Mbs service to telco neglected SOHOs (Small Office/Home Office) located in telco broadband black holes.*
* (See 1/23/09 update)

Telcos and to some extent cable providers have effectively ceded these areas to the WISPs, leading to increased competition among them. More competition among WISPs is also driving consolidation. Central Valley Broadband announced in October it had acquired two WISPs serving Placer and El Dorado counties.

Going forward, I expect WISPs to continue to provide a more flexible and robust pre-FTTP premises broadband option than DSL. Since it will likely be many years before most all premises have fiber optic connections, the WISPs appear set for a good long run.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Taking America's heartland by storm: WISPs swoop into areas neglected by wireline providers

Telecompetitor reports several WISPs are sweeping into several U.S. markets where wireline broadband service isn't offered. Not surprisingly, they are quickly signing up customers who have been waiting in vain for years for telcos and cable companies to provide high speed Internet:

All of these companies are targeting “underserved” rural markets with a broadband alternative. Underserved generally is a code word for markets served by large RBOCs and/or MSOs who have not invested in local broadband networks. These markets are often identified as a part of the “digital divide.” DigitalBridge says they have reached 10% penetration within 6 months of one their first market entries, Rexburg, ID. These growing rural deployments are leveraging quickly evolving broadband wireless technology and pent up demand for broadband in markets where little or no broadband competition exists.

According to Telecompetitor, one of the WISPs, Oklahoma City-based Stelera Wireless, has rolled out service in Floresville & Poth, Texas using recently auctioned spectrum offering maximum speeds of 7.2 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. However, Stelera informs me that its users get average download speeds of 1.5-2 Mbps down and 350-380 Kbps for uploads.

Notably, the WISP does not use telco circuits for backhaul connections, instead relying on its proprietary OC-3 and OC-12 microwave network. In Stelera's Texas markets, service is backhauled to San Antonio via microwave and from there via long haul ethernet to Stelera's Oklahoma City HQ POP.

Monday, October 15, 2007

WISP pulls out of Northern California, El Dorado County

In June 2006, NuTel Broadband Corporation, a Cranbury, NJ-based broadband wireless managed services provider announced plans to deploy wireless "mesh" broadband networks in Sacramento, Chico, San Jose and El Dorado County as part of a 14-state rollout. The company is now pulling out of Northern California.

The WISP had plans to begin rolling out service in Folsom and El Dorado Hills and then head east up US 50 into the foothills. NuTel CEO Joe Fiero confirmed the withdrawal in an email today. Fiero said the decision to pull the plug on the region was prompted by concerns from would be business partners that Fiero says feared potential competition from municipal Wi-Fi networks that would provide free or very low cost access to users. NuTel's business model involves partnering with existing ISPs and WISPs as well as residential telecommunications wiring contractors, with NuTel providing back office management as well as a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) offering via NuTel's proprietary backbone and switch.

"From a demographics point of view, we would love to be in the region," Fiero wrote. "It’s finding willing partners to build and operate the system that has been the issue. We have done exhaustive research and spent hundreds of hours to locate economic sources for bandwidth and proper antenna locations. Someday we hope to put all that to good use."

El Dorado County's locally owned and operated WISPs including Remotely Located and Sierra Advantage likely welcome Nutel's retreat, although from this blogger's perspective it appeared doubtful NuTel like Clearwire and other big multi-state WISPs would have ever served areas east of El Dorado Hills. Nor would they likely face competition there from free or cheap public Wi-Fi.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Big WiMAX players unlikely to fill in broadband black holes

There's more evidence the big wireless players making WiMAX plays aren't going to fill in broadband black holes that commonly exist outside of heavily populated regions.

Some observers have held out hope that wireless providers would provide the long awaited broadband solution to less urban areas that are underserved by the wireline telco/cable duopoly. Instead, the big guys like Clearwire are concentrating on serving mobile consumers in big metro areas shown by this announcement today that Clearwire Sprint Nextel have signed a letter of intent to jointly construct America’s first nationwide mobile WiMAX network.

The key word here is "mobile." In short, that doesn't mean residential consumers who remain mired in broadband black holes across much of America. Their wireless option for now is going to continue to remain among the 1,500 or so small wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) that provide fixed terrestrial service.

That is unless a high powered coalition is successful in demonstrating a prototype service called white space broadband that would deliver wireless broadband over unused portions of the television broadcast spectrum.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Sierra foothills economic development nonprofit gets federal funding to expand broadband

According to this report in TheUnion.com, the Sierra Economic Development District is getting a $190,000 grant from the USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant program.

The funds will be loaned to local Internet providers -- in this case apparently Wireless Internet Service Providers or WISPs -- to help extend their services.