Fixed Wireless Technology

The Wireless Lamp Post

Every business plan has its quirks, but few deliver the bandwidth of LastMile Communications: 40 to 400 Mbps at $375 per lamp post access point.

by Gerry Blackwell [May 4, 2004]

LastMile Communications is proposing to deploy a mesh network of 150,000 low-power, intelligent pico cells. It will do this by putting radios, antennas, flash memory and processors inside lamp posts and other roadside poles across the United Kingdom.

What immediately jumps out at you is the kind of data throughput LastMile is claiming for its technology: 40 to 400 Mbps.

The company will use unlicensed 63 GHz radio spectrum—which is set aside in the UK, as in the U.S., for telematics applications—and it will place base stations along roads and streets about every 500 meters.

"Anybody working in RF knows that if you're using 63 GHz over such a short range, even with low power, the data rates are actually beyond even what we're claiming," says LastMile CEO Antony Abell.

The LastMile plan clearly has implications for Wi-Fi, especially the hotspot market—but it may not be the Wi-Fi killer it at first appears. There are a few hurdles to get over still.

LastMile has already put in four years on this project. It began trials of the technology earlier this year. It will complete much more extensive tests before the end of the year.

"Assuming all things go swimmingly well, we see ourselves deploying in 2005," says Abell.

As long as it doesn't run into problems with production of the lamp post units, LastMile believes it will be possible to deploy all 150,000 base stations within a very short period—as little as 18 months.

The hardware is relatively easy to install, Abell points out. Individual base stations don't require backhaul because they communicate with each other over the air via mesh networking. Backbone connections can come into the mesh anywhere.

The base stations don't even absolutely require wired power connections. They can run on solar power. This may seem laughable given the British climate, famous for rain not sun, but Abell isn't joking.

The 150,000 lamp posts will be enough to cover all major roads and urban thoroughfares in Britain. He estimates the network will reach 80 percent of the population, including in residences and businesses. The vast majority of Britons live within 250 meters of a roadway, he points out.

The investment required? The lamp post base stations will cost less than $375 each. Total to deploy the network: less than $375 million.

Not that LastMile, or any one player, will spend anything like that sum. LastMile hopes to receive a good chunk of that as revenue.

The company is not a service provider, Abell is quick to point out, it's a technology developer. LastMile plans to sell its "data posts" to service providers such as cellular carriers—along with access rights to the poles, which it expects to secure from government agencies in return for a kick-back of free bandwidth.

The idea is that the service providers—franchisees in a sense—will deploy the technology in designated territories where they manage the infrastructure. However universal, transparent roaming will be built into the network from the get-go.

The bandwidth the network provides will support a host of applications.

"Providing a pure telematics service is not a great market," Abell says. "There's lots of interest from the transport industry, government and police, but they can't generate enough revenue to make it commercially viable to provide the coverage and bandwidth needed."

Go to page two: So where's the catch? >