WASHINGTON-A company with a name that means “a rapid gallop” or “the blare of a horn” next month plans to begin alpha testing a technology that could greatly reduce the gap between those who have high-speed Internet access and those who do not.
Using dedicated spectrum from personal communications services carriers, Tantivy Communications Inc. of Melbourne, Fla., is developing technology that allows high-speed Internet access-up to 384 kilobits per second-within five miles of a PCS tower equipped with its technology.
Tantivy will alpha test the technology in Melbourne in December, with PCS carrier testing in February and commercial launch later next year, said Tantivy President D.R. (Randy) Roberson.
No longer will a neighborhood be required to wait for the cable company to upgrade to broadband service, or the phone company to offer digital subscriber line service. If there is a PCS base station equipped with Tantivy’s technology, then a neighborhood is wired for the future.
The technology is not designed for the high-mobility user. Indeed, Tantivy’s literature says it is to be used at a “pedestrian pace.” In other words, the modem is small enough to be mobile but would not work in a car or train.
The first edition is 5 x 5 x 2 inches, but could someday be an embedded chip in a personal computer.
While Tantivy hopes that someday it can develop technology to be mobile, it did not want to lose between 50-80 percent of the possible capacity to reach the 2-3 percent of the market that would want high-speed mobility, said Amalfitano.
Tantivy-which filed its first patent application a month after forming in 1997-believes its technology could also close the digital divide in rural America.
At a recent summit on Capitol Hill on how to quickly bring high-speed Internet access to rural America, Roberson said that since Tantivy’s technology doesn’t require wiring, it can be in place wherever there is an existing PCS cell site. This compares with wireline systems, where thousands of dollars must be spent to put fiber in the ground.
The genesis of the Tantivy technology was the idea that PCS spectrum could be better used since PCS mobile-phone technology is optimized for voice instead of data.
“If there was a way to take advantage of the cell sites … why would a cell system not be efficient for data? The primary reason is the systems are optimized for voice,” Roberson explained.
Tantivy’s customer base is expected to be PCS carriers with left-over spectrum that can be dedicated to data transmission.
As an add-on feature, Tantivy believes it is attractive to PCS carriers still paying for their licenses. “We give PCS spectrum holders the opportunity to pay off licenses,” said Roberson.
Tantivy’s chief technology officer, Carlo Amalfitano, further explained that since spectrum is precious and PCS spectrum is protected, there is a business model for Tantivy’s ideas.
“If spectrum was free, our technology [would not be marketable]. Spectrum that is unprotected would not work. Spectrum is very important to those who paid a lot for it,” Amalfitano said in an interview with RCR.
“We anticipate our technology would allow PCS carriers to price their service to be competitive with cable modems or DSL and be profitable,” said Roberson.
Another attractive feature of the technology is the ability to “always be on.” In other words, the days of needing two phone lines would be no more. Additionally, since it doesn’t hook into the phone lines, a customer could sit on a deck or the beach and still have high-speed Internet access.
Tantivy’s technology breaks the wired philosophy. You don’t have to be hooked into a phone jack to be able to communicate.
“It is ingrained in the mind that the telephone is the communications device, and that is definitely not the case,” said Amalfitano.
