Wireless News Briefs - July 12, 2000

• Grass-roots OFDM standards group blossoms
• New turnkey wireless net provider hits the scene
• German mobile system to quadruple throughput

by Gerry Blackwell

Wireless David adding to arsenal
Wi-LAN Inc. and the OFDM Forum are gaining momentum. In the lead-up to the Forum's second quarterly meeting in Calgary, Canada July 13 to 15, Wi-LAN announced it had added five new members from around the world. That brings total membership to 40.

"The continued growth of the Forum is evidence that momentum around establishing a single global OFDM standard is escalating," says Hatim Zaghloul, chairman and CEO of Wi-LAN.

The OFDM Forum is a "market development association" attempting to rally industry support for a wireless network standard based on the W-OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technology developed by Wi-LAN, a Calgary-based network equipment vendor.

OFDM, an already standardized radio technology, increases network capacity in spread spectrum networks. Wi-LAN says its W-OFDM version of the technology reduces transmission errors, increasing effective throughput and reliability.

Earlier this year, Wi-LAN squared off with networking Goliath Cisco Systems. Cisco has developed similar-sounding OFDM technology, VOFDM, which it incorporated in its fixed wireless network infrastructure products aimed at the ISP market.

Cisco at first appeared ready to join the Wi-LAN-chaired Forum, but later pulled back. Wi-LAN, meanwhile, accused the larger company of infringing its W-OFDM patents with VOFDM.

New members in the Forum's Small Business category are SiWorks Inc., DKS Signalverarbeitung GmBH, 4G Network Technologies Inc., and Communications Services International Inc. (CSI). ioWave Inc. has joined as an Associate Member.

ioWave Inc. is an Arlington, Va.-based wireless equipment vendor. 4G Network Technologies Inc. (4GNT) of Dallas is developing a "fourth generation" wireless network to provide fixed and mobile broadband services. Communications Services International Inc., headquartered in Los Alamitos, Calif., is a network installation company.

SiWorks is an analog and digital IC designer. DKS Signalverarbeitung is a Frankfurt-based manufacturer of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modems.

Membership entitles the five new companies to participate in the organization's July meeting, where attendees will discuss interoperability between market segments, harmonized standards and spectrum allocations as they relate to OFDM. They'll also hear reports from the field on OFDM developments.
Related story: David/Goliath Battle over Wireless Technology

Do they know something we don't?
When a consulting firm decides to exclusively back one product or service, does it mean it's no longer independent, or simply that it has found the very best?

Competitive Communications Group (CCG), a Riverdale Md.-based firm that provides management consulting to telcos, DSL providers, and ISPs just signed an agreement under which it will refer clients looking for fixed wireless network solutions to relative newcomer USURF America Inc.

USURF, a Baton Rouge La.-based equipment and service provider, makes the turnkey Quick-Cell Wireless Internet access system, which it announced recently it would sell at rockbottom prices starting just under $12,000.

"The wireless system that USURF has developed meets the market entry strategy and the price points required by many of our clients," notes CCG principal Doug Dawson.

"CCG has evaluated the USURF wireless system and finds that it is ideally suited to provide high-speed data services to businesses and, for the first time that we are aware of, makes wireless high speed internet access economically available to residential users as well."

USURF already operates a high-speed wireless service itself in New Mexico. Priced at under $40, the service competes with DSL from ILECs, CLECs, and other providers.

The Quick-Cell system, which operates in the 2.4GHz band and provides scalable bandwidth to 1.54Mb, requires no FCC license and can be expanded to cover cities of any size. USURF says it lets Internet access providers offer home and business customers always-on broadband wireless Internet access at extremely competitive rates.

Quick-Cell service also offers voice over Internet (VoIP) capability.

World's first "2.5G" mobile wireless network
German PCS operator T-Mobil, a unit of government-run Deutsche Telekom, is claiming to be the first network service to introduce high-speed mobile Internet access using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology.

A recent blitzkrieg of network equipment upgrades by Lucent Technologies—8,000 base stations across Germany—allowed T-Mobil to become the world's first operator to deploy a commercial Internet service based on GPRS.

GPRS is an interim step for GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)-based PCS providers in the evolution to the "3G" wireless mobile systems that will ultimately provide 384-Kbps mobile data service.

With GPRS, T-Mobil's 13 million customers will be able to initially download Internet information and send e-mail at rates up to 40 Kbps, a four-fold increase over the current 9.6-Kbps rate of standard GSM networks.

According to Lucent, the pricing scheme is likely to be based on data volume rather than connection time, ushering in a billing model that will likely set the tone for the next-generation multimedia services that companies like T-mobil will pioneer in Europe over he next year or so.
Related stories:

Broadband Mobile Wireless
3G Technology Gives Mobile Wireless the EDGE

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