Wireless Internet Solutions Provider, Inc.

With a credit-card-sized modem and an antenna the size of a ball-point pen, WISP Inc. will provide actual web access through a laptop or Palm Pilot. Fixed IP address included.

by Alex Goldman
Associate Editor, ISP-Planet
[July 28, 2000]

WISP, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio is a company that is two years old, has twenty employees, and is providing astonishing mobile Internet products through proprietary technology combined with alliances with cellular carriers.

The customer hardware is manufactured by other companies, such as Novatel Wireless, Nextcell, and Sierra Wireless. The equipment is not cheap: most people are no longer willing to pay $300 to $600 for a modem. Service plans generally range from $40 to $60 per month, with charges of $0.12 per Kb when used outside the service area. At current prices, this is a system for business rather than home users.

These modems use a system called Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) which employs a digital overlay over the analog cellular network called the Advanced Mobile Phone Systems (AMPS).

CDPD uses static IP addresses, which are activated as soon as the local cellular antenna recognizes your computer's antenna. WISP gets IP blocks from its wireless network partners — such as Verizon and AT&T.

CDPD will not work without a cellular signal.

CDPD alone is slow. The spec calls for 19.2 Kbps, with a usual throughput of 8 to 12. That's a large variation, caused by varying signal strength. Signal strength affects packet loss, which in turn affects throughput.

What about handoffs and use while moving? Said co-founder and CEO Percy Bhathena, "I've used it on the Long Island Railroad. Of course, you can't use it wherever you can't use a cell phone."

WISP solution
WISP has a hardware-and-software solution to the speed problem. Packets are certainly dropped. WISP deals with this through compression, error correction, branching (anticipating the next page on a popular site), and pathfinding (finding the best route through the Internet).

To optimize the connection, WISP places hardware near cellular providers' Network Operation Centers (NOCs). Since a cellular network is very centralized, WISP requires few NOCs.

WISP claims that modmes on its network achieve speeds of 33.3 to 56 Kbps, and updates will enable speeds of 60Kbps and higher.

As WISP's coverage maps show, the company does not have the entire nation covered, but it has reached the major cities.

Update
In the past, WISP installed client-server software on mobile devices, but the new version of the software is entirely on the server side. So updates will be easy, and multiple platform support will be simple. Basically, if it can run a web browser, it will soon be able to work with WISP. WISP already supports Windows 3x, 9x, 2K, NT, PocketPC, and CE, as well as Mac OS 8.0 and Palm.

When I spoke to Percy Bhathena, he was most enthusiastic about business services. He is working on being able to deal with a top-flight VPN so that mobile users could print to their office printer, download files from a desktop while on the road, and share files with people back at the home base.

He is also working with other companies' proprietary software. For example, he is working with a company that sells and cleans uniforms. Every item is coded and can be tracked from pickup through cleaning to delivery. The company has a wireless device in every delivery van so that items are scanned into a database at pickup and delivery is also recorded. Since some deliveries are out of the network, WISP developed software that would recognize when the wireless device was outside the network, and upload data when the device returned to the network

Another new idea is using the CDPD connection for the return line on a Hughes DirecPC network. This provides satellite-level download speeds.

Cold
"So how did you get these relationships with the carriers?" I asked. Apparently it started with a cold call to Bell Atlantic Mobile, followed by over a year of negotiation. But that deal launched the business. Said Percy, "BAM is aggressive in this space and very supportive of companies like WISP. They understood it in the beginning."

Partners
In the future, WISP may extend coverage through partnerships with local ISPs, starting near its home base in Cleveland, Ohio. Stay tuned. If you're interested in contacting WISP, use info@wispinc.com.

Related article
"Poor Coverage May Hold Back Wireless"

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