WLL never looked so good: now that wireless local loop technology, once hyped as the ultimate teledensity booster, has gone through its reality check, improved technologies and wiser business models could be the key to a WLL comeback—but not necessarily for the rural pops - Wireless

Telecom Asia, Oct, 2002 by John C. Tanner

Still, options for rural connectivity are expanding somewhat. VSAT vendors are still actively selling rural telephony products--for example, Gilat Satellite landed a rash of deals earlier this year in China, the Philippines, India, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. VSATs are also becoming more and more affordable, with dish prices down to as cheap as $2,000, compared to around $10,000 a decade ago.

Another potential rural option is cellular technology for old NMT 450 analog systems. CDMA 450 equipment, already commercially available from Huawei and Lucent, operates in the 400 MHz band about twice the range of 800-MHz CDMA, which means fewer cell sites and lower capex (and no spectrum payouts for carriers that have licenses already). GSM 400 offers the same basic capabilities, although it has yet to be commercialized.

Another possibility for rural connectivity--at least for Internet access--is wireless routers, which can be configured to form a wireless mesh network data network interconnected to the PSTN and accessed by 802.11b. Naturally, a network of this type--called a "microdesic network" by Japanese academics--requires at least an access point to the PSTN, which could be set up via satellite. But big companies like Nokia and start-ups like MeshNetworks, CoWave Networks and Tokyo-based Root are already developing the gear, and KDDI has been conducting field tests of such equipment.

Wireless mesh also apparently has some DIY potential for more self-sufficient remote communities. For example, in the remote Japanese Kochi Prefecture city of Nankoku City--which has a population of about 50,000, with 17,000 households in an area of approximately 125 sq. km--gets its telecoms connectivity solely via NTT. When a 1998 storm caused severe flooding, residents hoping to get on the Net and appeal for help found themselves blocked by NTT due to emergency bandwidth restrictions. The residents decided to build their own citywide intranet using wireless routers and 802.11b--and that's just what they did. The "Kochi City-size Area Network" (KCAN) was built for around $400,000, and currently connects 13 primary schools, four junior-high schools and 18 municipal buildings.