Fixed Wireless Broadband Services

Spike Broadband Systems announced its Spike Continuum product line, aimed at allowing ISPs to rollout services flexibly, with a minimal up-front investment in a product that can be scaled as demand grows.

by Wayne Kawamoto [February 9, 2001]

Spike Broadband Systems, a provider of carrier-grade, fixed wireless broadband access solutions, introduced its new product line—the Spike Continuum—including two new products the Spike Continuum70 and Spike Continuum278.

Spike Broadband Systems supplies turnkey, carrier-grade, fixed wireless broadband access solutions to telecom service providers who seek to deploy high-speed voice, data and video services at a fraction of the cost and time needed to deploy traditional wireline infrastructures. Spike designs, deploys, and supports its own end-to-end, high-capacity fixed broadband wireless access system for the licensed 2.5GHz (including MMDS) and 3.5GHz (FWA or WLL) frequency bands.

According to Spike, Continuum70 and Continuum278 provide faster and greater profitability to telecom service providers by offering a highly scalable technology platform that meets their increased capacity requirements for high-growth fixed wireless broadband markets.

The numbers "70" and "278" refer to the number of bits per hertz, times 10, that each system can support with the available spectrum.

Spike says that this high level of capital efficiency results from Continuum's "pay-as-you-grow" scalability that is combined with top-end capacity. This, in turn, may make Continuum well suited for early-market deployments, generally characterized by lighter initial customer densities, but facing capacity demands that are expected to grow exponentially over time.

The company claims that service providers may also leverage the advantages of Spike's Wireless Concentrator and patented S2R (Simultaneous Spectral Reuse) technology, to scale to higher capacities as they ramp-up their networks. The Wireless Concentrator may allow service providers to support up to 8x the customers and revenue from available spectrum.

In addition to Spike Continuum's overall capital efficiency advantages, the Spike Continuum70 and the Spike Continuum278 may offer service providers:

• A "next generation" technology Platform: Spike Continuum will serve as Spike's technology platform for the deployment of planned enhancements to support legacy services such as voice and E1/T1, in addition to currently supported IP-based capabilities.
• Operational efficiency: Both the Continuum70 and Continuum278 are designed to scale in capacity and functionality without the need for additional spectrum, truck rolls or fork lift upgrades, or the costly service down time that are often required for other wireless system upgrades.
• Investment protection: The Continuum70 and Continuum278 are designed as standards-based platforms (including IP, Ethernet, and DOCSIS) that protect service providers against hardware obsolescence and technology shifts over time, and ensure long-term compatibility with multiple network configurations. In addition, the Continuum platform enables seamless integration and management across the service provider's entire network.

"With Spike Continuum, we're dealing the service providers a winning hand," says Jim Zucco, Chairman and CEO, Spike Broadband Systems. "In an uncertain capital market, carriers cannot easily predict the traffic mix or volume demands within their service area.With Spike Continuum, service providers can enter the market with a small investment and, as market conditions improve and demand grows, offer additional capacity to support more customers and greater volumes of data, VoIP and legacy voice traffic. With Spike's solution, service providers win no matter what conditions the market deals them."

Availability and pricing
The Spike Continuum70 and the Spike Continuum278 are scheduled to be available in Q2 of 2001. Prices were unavailable at press time.

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