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.

Far Eastone sees WiMax by early 2009

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's second-largest telecoms carrier, Far Eastone Communications Co. Ltd., said Friday it plans to roll out commercial WiMax services by the end of 2008 or early 2009.

WiMax -- seen as a step up from the WiFi standard, which is limited by proximity to a transmitter -- allows anyone with a WiMax enabled laptop or media device to download songs over distances of up to 30 miles.

"We are in the trial and testing phase right now, and we won't launch commercially unit late 2008, or early 2009," Far Eastone President Jan Nilsson told reporters at a briefing to mark the firm's 10th year.

Nilsson also said it would invest NT$5 billion to build the services for southern Taiwan, for which the company currently has the WiMax license, and about NT$10 billion to build services for the entire island.

Nilsson added that Far Eastone would build the WiMax equipment on top of the company's current mobile communications infrastructure.

The company also plans to collaborate with one of the license holders for northern Taiwan and is in discussions with a potential partner, he said.

In July, Taiwan's telecoms regulator awarded licenses to six telecoms firms, with each company given a specific region for coverage.

Besides Far Eastone, other winners were Tatung Co., First International Telecom Corp., Vastar Cable TV System Corp., Global On Corp. and a joint venture between telecom-equipment maker Tecom Co. and VIBO Telecom Inc.

Far Eastone's Nilsson said he sees "growth" in revenue next year, and it has set a goal of outgrowing its larger local rival Chunghwa Telecom. He declined to give specific figures.

Far Eastone's smaller cross-town rival is Taiwan Mobile. Its shares ended 0.72 percent lower Friday, under-performing the benchmark TAIEX index's 0.02 percent decline.

IDF: Intel Promises WiMax Equipment by Next Year

By Bryan Gardiner

PerlmutterWe've been hearing about it for years, especially from Intel. WiMax will bring "true mobile connectivity." WiMax will be a superior fourth generation network. WiMax will deliver broadband wireless internet service at speeds five times faster than 3G networks. And yet, despite all these promises, the mobile standard (IEEE 802.16) has remained a hyped concept instead of a viable option for the public at large.

That's about to change, according to Intel. With a planned $5 billion dollar build-out by Sprint, a growing ecosystem of WiMax device manufacturers, and some progress on the interoperability and standard fronts, the wireless technology is about to go public in a big way, according to the chipmaker.

Mirroring Paul Otellini's comments yesterday, David Perlmutter (pictured right), the company's senior vice president of the mobility group, promised that consumers will see WiMax-enabled notebooks in 2008. For real, this time.

During his talk at this morning's IDF, Perlmutter reiterated that companies like Acer, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have all signed up to ship laptops with Intel's embedded WiMax/Wi-Fi module, called Echo Peak. The module will be offered in notebooks based on Intel's next generation of Centrino processors, code-named Montevina for now. So I guess that's one part of the puzzle. Now, we'll have to see if the networks are in place next year for those projected 150 million people referenced yesterday.