Next Generation Commercial Fixed Wireless Delivers T1/T3 Last Mile
by Mark Carpenter, CEO, Centricity Communications

Irvine, CA, USA, May 28, 2007 — Almost all businesses today, from small to large, use high speed Internet for email and web access services. In addition, more and more companies are running file, email, web or online collaboration servers at their site that require an upgrade to commercial T1/T3 class Internet services.

Surprisingly, despite the ubiquity of the Internet today and its essential role in a very competitive business environment, a number of companies still cannot get commercial T1/T3 service to their business location. This is true not only in rural areas, but even in heavily populated urban areas in which an office building may be too old or too far away to warrant the service provider wiring the T1/T3 last mile to that site location. In other cases, even if the provider may be willing to run the connection, the fees to run that last mile of wire are too cost-prohibitive to the business.

Therefore, many businesses are often only able to get non-commercial DSL services, inhibiting their ability to use these advanced online collaborative tools. As a result, many office building managers and owners are discovering they are losing key business tenants due to their inability to service them with a commercial T1/T3 solution.

In 2001, the IEEE and ETSI technology standards groups began working on commercial wireless broadband standards that could provide the last mile more cost-effectively than wired T1/T3 solutions, bypassing fixed line installations and access fees, while still providing the same level of commercial service. These groups drafted what became the 802.16 WiMAX™ standard, which builds upon technology from the well-known 802.11 WiFi™ standard used today at offices and hotspots throughout the world, but at a commercial class level with much further range (5-30 miles) at high bandwidth (1.5Mbps to 80Mbps).

Though the standard was only recently ratified, commercial fixed wireless products based on this technology have been available for the past couple years and built into the infrastructure provided by leading service providers in Orange County. Upon initial launch, these services drew immediate demand from those businesses previously unable to get this level of T1/T3 class service to their office building locations. However, a number of other key benefits of this technology also became evident.

Whereas it usually took 30 to 45 days to provision a wired T1/T3 connection to a new building site, the commercial fixed wireless solution could be installed, configured, and running within a couple days. If the business should need to relocate, they could take the wireless receiver unit and settings with them and have it quickly installed at their new site location, often within the same business day. Furthermore, since the technology provided its own point-to-point connectivity to the site, there was no separate wire line local access fee, which saved up to 50% of the cost for the business.

As one of the major regional technology centers in the U.S., these next generation commercial fixed wireless services are already here in Orange County. They have closed the T1/T3 class last mile, enabling leading businesses to stay competitive and to fully utilize the latest commercial online services available in the global marketplace.

About the Author
Mark Carpenter is founder and CEO of Centricity Communications LLC, a provider of fixed wireless Internet and Point-to-Point services for small to mid-sized businesses in Orange County, delivering commercial bandwidth from 1.5Mbps to 80Mbps. For more information about Centricity please visit www.centricitycomm.com or you can contact Mark directly at mark.carpenter@centricitycomm.com.