Wireless access provider First Avenue Networks and cable over-builder RCN have entered into a strategic partnership which will enable each company to reach a broader customer base, reports Telephony Magazine.
First Avenue will provide RCN with high-speed fixed wireless extensions from the cable company’s fiber optic backbone to reach a much larger number of business customers without running expensive fiber laterals. RCN will provide First Avenue with access to points of presence on its fiber network that expand the wireless company’s ability to provide backhaul services for the exploding mobile data market.
These are both multi-billion dollar opportunities, which are exploding at the same time, said Mike Gallagher, president and CEO of First Avenue. It’s exciting for us because the two companies have the same vision.
We have 20,000 buildings that are within 500 feet of our fiber optic network, said Timothy Dunne, executive vice president and CTO of RCN. We can use this as part of our sales kit to go into those buildings with wireless extensions rather than having to dig up the street to install fiber. Plus we can provide them with backhaul through our fiber optic network it’s a mutually beneficial deal.
First Avenue Networks (above) bought out the radio spectrum assets of bankrupt of Advanced Radio Telecom (at 39GHz) and Teligent (at 24 GHz) and now has 24/39 GHz licenses throughout the United States with deep coverage in 77 metropolitan areas.
Competitor XO (above), plans to sell its national wired network for $700 million and become a leading provider of fixed broadband wireless. XO is one of the largest holders of fixed wireless licenses in the 28 GHz-31 GHz spectrum covering more than 70 U.S. major metropolitan markets.
Other point to point wireless links with a range of 1-8 miles or so include; Solectek SkyWay 7000 (unlicensed 5.8 GHz, up to 108 Mbps), Orthogon Systems’ OS-Spectra (unlicensed 5.8 GHz, up to 300 Mbps), DragonWave AirPair (24 GHz license-exempt, up to 200 Mbps), BridgeWave FE60 (60 GHz license-exempt, 100 Mbps), Proxim’s $15K Terabeam (60 GHz, 125 Mbps) and GigaBeam (70 GHz, 1 Gbps).
Lightpointe’s FlightStrata 100 XA provides 100-Mbps, full-duplex connectivity through an optical wireless path. If the optical path is disrupted by environmental conditions like dense fog, network traffic is switched instantly to a secondary 72-Mbps RF path using the unlicensed 5.8 GHz band.
Free Space Optics include Canobeam, TeraOptic, Lightpointe and fSONA (up to Gigabit Ethernet).
VeriLAN used fSONA’s SONAbeam to link together the Hyatt Regency and the Fairmont Hotel at last week’s IEEE Plenary in Vancouver, BC. The cost for leased 100M bit/sec fiber cable can run $10,000/month.
Steve Stroh has more details. Light Reading and Light Wave cover optical developments. Related DailyWireless articles include; 60 Ghz Long Shot, GigE WiMax?, Re-animating Backhaul, Gigabit WiFi, More Gigabit Wireless and Lousiana: Broadband Trial By Fire.
