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Jeff Thompson (left),TowerStream's chief operating officer, and CEOPhilipUrso have placed antennas atop the Aon Center.

Wirelesscompetition'.climbsto new heights

NewtechnologyspinsawirelessWebA new system called WiMax offers an alternative to the way broadband signals are delivered. The high-speed wireless signal is tral)~mitt!i!d through the air instead of land-based connections.

By Jon VanTribune staff reporter

r- A wireless Internet connec-tion that stretches for milescould start the next wave' of.high-speed offerings.

The plan by a small RhodeIsland-based fmn to offer to-tally wireless high-speed ac-cess in Chicago will competewith wired service throughphone lines or cable Tv. Thethrough-the-air connection,known as WiMax, can reachup to 10 miles and comple-ments popular short-rangeWi-Fi wireless services athome or in the office.

Initially geared for businesscustomers, TowerStreamCorp. has installed antennasatop the Aon Center in Chica-go to beam its signal to areacustomers.

The company serves about600 business customers inNew York, Boston and otherEastern cities with wirelessbroadband.

"Wemake wires obsolete,"said Philip Urso, Tower-

.stream's chief executive. "Wereally drove home that pointin Boston when we won theBoston Housing Authority ac-count. Oncethey turned us on,the copper phone lin,es intotheir buildings just went,

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I An antennaownedbyTowerStream

atop the Aon Centerisconnected by fiber-optic cable to theInternet.Source: TowerStream Corp.

n The antenna can. broadcastbroad-band signals5 to 10milesthrough theair,depending onconditions.

II A privatebusiness :n AWi-Fitransponder.within rangeof the: - dispersesthe signalin

signal can purchaseaccess: a300-foot radius,to it. A receiver on the : allowing customers to

outside of the building ~ receivehigh-speed,capturesthe signal. :wirelessaccess.

Chicago Tribune

dead."TowerStream is not the fIrst

company offering wirelessbroadband connectivity. Tele~com titans, including AT&TCorp. and Sprint Corp., havespent billions setting up wire-less networks to send high-speed service, only to fail.

But this time, experts saythe technology. is ready forprime time and tiny Tower-Stream may succeed.

Jeff Thompson, tile fmn'schief operating officer, saidTowerStream uses a new gen-pration of less expensiveequipment that performs bet- PLEASE SEE WIMAX, BACK PAGE

ter. And when more WiMaxcomponents become availablenext' year. costs are likely tofall and performance will im-prove, he said.

Several years ago, AT&Tan,nounced an experimental flX-

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l\.,'~~d wireless effort called Project.4ngel. It did not test well

~"anough to go commercial.l '\1: More recently Sprint startedI :\a high-speed w.ireless Internet'l "service in Chicago and other cit-I :J.~s.The service still operates,I ~,.I --'--I .I '~L:

CHICAGO TRIBUNE . SECTION 31j

but it stopped recruiting newcustomers because it waslosingmoney.

Lookingfor alternativesChicago investment -bank In-

capital LLC has used Tower-Stream's wireless service sinceFebruary.

Having a dependable broad-band connectionis essential toIricapital's' busmess, said JoeRickard, chief technologyoffi-cer. The Loop-based fIrm hasbeen worried since rains flood-ed the basement ofits building afew years ago, washing out its'communications lines.

The wireless service works asexpected, Rickard said. If that

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continues, Incapital will proba-bly drop one of its two wired in-ternet connections and increasethe amount of bandwidth pur-chased trom TowerStream.

"The cost is competitive,"Rickard said, "but that's notsomething we even care about.Wewere looking for an alterna-tive to assure business continui-ty." .

IncapitaI uses its Tower-Stream connection for datacommunications orily; but the['Inn could add Internet telepho-ny'and may do so in the future,Rickard said.

TowerStream is lookingaround Chicago for other tallbuildings to momh antennas,

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Keepingpricescompetitive ?The ['Inn currently charges II

$500a month for up to 5 mega- l~bits per second of data. That'is

~competitive with phone compa-. 'ny prices for T1 lines to busi- 01nesses: ~

For 'home users, Comeast c~Corp. recently increased its da- ,ta rate to 3 million bits per sec- f~ond, up trom 1.5megabits, at no ~J

'WzMax will bring down the cost ofbroadband-wired or wireless-to the home. ' .

-Marty Singer, chief executive of.Chicago-based PGEL Inc.

Thompson said."Our system works like a cell

phone network," he said. "Even-tually; we'll have a several trans-mission towers to cover the en-tire Chicago region."

As that happens, Tower-. Stream will lower prices andeventually offer service to resi-dential customers in competi-tion with cabl~ modem and DSLInternet service.

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luES!>AV APRIL 13. 2004II

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- extra cost. SBCCorp. also otTersspeeds ofup to 3megabits in one

l' of its tiered pricing structures.

Both cable and DSL servicescost less than $50a month.

TowerStream is a member ofthe WiMax Forum, an industry

I group backingthe newtechnol-I ogy;which is capableof deliver-res ing broadband service wireless-~a- 'ly for about 10 miles. WiMaxris technology will conform to aDa- new standard from the Institute~i- of Electrical and Electron

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ic En-

I gineers that goesIDilder theast catchy name of802.16.'ita- WiMax hopes to follow in thebc- footsteps ofWi-Fi, the remarka-

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successful Wire.

less Internettechnology that operates best atdistances ofless than 3oofeet.

TowerStream's service is con-sidered pre~WiMax because ac-tual WiMax products won't becertified and marketed until.next year. That's when a cycle oflower prices and better perform-ance is expected tostart.

The success of Wi-Fi as ashort -distance wireless technol- '-.,.ogy illustrates how standardiza-tion lowers costs and broadenssales, said Roger Marks, chair-man of the IEEE committee forthe 802.16standard.

"A standard takes a lot of risk,out of the system for an' oper-ator," he said. "Without Ii stan-dard when you pick a vendbr,you're not sure if he'll stay in 'business. With a stinidard,youknow that several vendors aremaking the devices you need."

, WiMax will be complemen-tary to Wi-Fi aRd will- lead tolower prices for all forms ofbroadband, predicts Marty

. Singer,chiefexecutiveofChica-go-basedPCTEL,Inc., afmnthatproduces softWare for wirelessbroadband. '

"WiMax will bring down the,cost of broadband~wired orwirelesS-:-to the home," said

., Singer. "DSL will have to cutprices to compete. Wethmk thatWiMaxwill lead to increased de-

liI mand, for Wi~Fi' withiri .the .~home. '

"It'lliead to a broadband ex-plosion. " .

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