Nextel's Wireless Broadband To Be Fast But Late

Nextel has narrowed down its wireless broadband technology choices to two but, in either case, the company will be later to market than many of its competitors, an executive of the company said Friday. However, when the technology is finally available, it will be significantly faster than wireless broadband offered by other wireless operators, the executive said.

The company is deciding between FLASH-OFDM wireless broadband from Flarion Technology and the next generation of EV-DO technology, according to Bin Shen, Nextel's senior director of strategic marketing. He also is program director for Nextel's FLASH-OFDM field trial in North Carolina.

Shen acknowledged that the company does not expect to complete its nationwide roll-out until, at the earliest, the end of 2006. By contrast, Verizon Wireless claims it will be finished rolling out its current-generation EV-DO network by next summer (click here for a review of Verizon's service) and Sprint says it will be finished by the end of next year.

But when Nextel is done, the company will be offering data speeds of about 1 Mbps. Shen said both FLASH -OFDM and the next generation of EV-DO, which is based on CDMA technology, will deliver roughly the same speeds. By contrast, other wireless operators, such as Verizon Wireless, already are rolling out current versions of EV-DO, but that technology typically only provides speeds of 384 Kbps.

In any case, the company is not considering the more widely-discussed WiMAX for broad commercial rollout. One reason for that is that initial versions of WiMAX will not provide for mobility and, in addition to speed, mobility was a key consideration for Nextel, Shen said."It's fair to say (mobility) was one of the issues (regarding WiMAX)," Shen said in an interview. "And there are other issues. But WiMAX has a lot of different applications that we want to evaluate. For instance, it can be a backhaul solution from a cell site. It also can be for a fixed wireless applications and Nextel is considering some options for that, too."

WiMAX proponents are working on the 802.16e sub-specification that will provide mobility, but "that's not where they start from and it's at an early stage," Shen said.

The company said it has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to both Flarion Technologies, the developer of FLASH-OFDM, and to vendors of next-generation EV-DO equipment. Shen said he expected the RFP process to be completed in the first half of next year.

"We are going through a formal RFP process to evaluate the vendors and their response," Shen said. "Another purpose is to understand whether there is a significant difference between the two technologies."

He said that, besides speed, latency is a key consideration. That's particularly the case because the operator wants to deploy voice-over-IP over whichever system they choose, according to Shen.Shen also said the North Carolina trials have gone well and will be extended until next June. (Click here for a review of the service.) He said that it's less a technology trial and more of a marketing trial.

"We discovered this is a lifestyle product," Shen said. "It's very similar to what cellular service was in the beginning, when people asked whether they would carry a mobile phone everywhere. Now, we're finding that, after a month or two of service, people start carrying their laptop and PC Card with them."

He also noted strong response from businesses in the trial, with applications including real-time database look-ups, remote monitoring and real estate accessing and uploading images of properties.

Shen said that, whichever wireless broadband technology is selected, it will operate in the 1.9 GHz portion of the spectrum, which Nextel is in the process of acquiring. It had petitioned the FCC for the spectrum and Verizon Wireless recently dropped its objections in exchange for a promise from Nextel to drop legal proceedings related to push-to-talk technology. He said that the company's voice customers will continue to use the 800 MHz portion of the spectrum.

Shen agreed that rolling out its wireless technology puts Nextel in the position of being both a cellular phone company and a wireless ISP. "We think of ourselves as a wireless company, not just a cellular company," he said.0