Rural providers in Kentucky, Idaho look to WiMAX

By Kelly Hill

While large service providers look to WiMAX technology to push the envelope on advanced services, small, rural operators are turning to WiMAX to provide basic broadband service to people who have not had access to it.

Interest is strong, but actual deployments are few at this point. Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. have emphasized mobile WiMAX, but the rural companies, often wireless Internet service providers, are considering fixed and nomadic WiMAX or pre-WiMAX technology.

Kentucky home

Wireless isn’t new to the rural landscape, and provides an opportunity for service that extends beyond the expensive deployment of DSL or other landline services. In Kentucky, the state is relying on small WISPs to help it push its broadband coverage near 100% as part of an ambitious, multi-year project that is being watched closely by other states. With little interest or economic incentive to put expensive wired infrastructure in place to reach small towns in Kentucky’s mountain valleys, wireless is bridging the gap, according to Joe Mefford, statewide broadband director for the ConnectKentucky initiative. Kentucky has about 95% broadband availability today, Mefford said, and those last few areas of coverage are the hardest to reach.

“When you get to 90-plus percent coverage, all of the cable and telcos kind of lose interest because there are not enough houses in those remaining areas for them to get the kind of [return on investment] that their investors demand,” Mefford said. “We’re working with a lot of those wireless ISPs right now to get that last 5%, because they’re the only ones that can make the model work. So wireless is very significant in our final buildout.”

Mefford added that the state started another not-for-profit, ConnectedNation, to help share its experiences in achieving broadband coverage; he said that Kentucky is in discussions with about 20 other states that are interested in similar initiatives.

Idaho and elsewhere

Alvarion Ltd. provided the equipment for one of the few rural WiMAX deployments in the U.S., by DigitalBridge Communications. The Virginia-based, venture-capital–backed DBC launched a small WiMAX network in the tiny town of Rexburg, Idaho, covering about 7,000 homes using fixed/nomadic WiMAX. DBC acquired two small wireless Internet and cable service providers in Wyoming and Idaho, and plans to expand into markets in the Midwest and South.

Patrick Leary, assistant vice president of market development for Alvarion, acknowledged that one of the reasons that rural U.S. markets lag in WiMAX compared to the rest of the world is due to the fact that much of the 2.5 GHz and 2.3 GHz WiMAX spectrum is tied up within a handful of large companies. But, he added, a bigger factor is that the WiMAX ecosystem is still young, and few companies have received federal approval to sell WiMAX equipment for commercial use.