NEW YORK-CKW Wireless Pty Ltd., an Australian subsidiary of ArrayComm Inc., San Jose, Calif., has launched a pre-commercial trial in Sydney of the i-Burst personal broadband system.
ArrayComm’s patented IntelliCell technology, based on fully adaptive smart antennas, is the foundation for the i-Burst system, which provides stationary and mobile wireless Internet access.
Following last month’s release of CKW’s license for 5 megahertz of Time Division Duplex spectrum in the 1.9 GHz frequency band, CKW and its consortium partners set up part of the initial deployment, which will comprise approximately a dozen base stations covering about 93 square miles in Sydney.
After the first few base stations went into operation, CKW demonstrated provision of Web browsing, e-mail, streaming video, Web camera, instant uploads of digital photos, Voice over Internet Protocol and access to corporate virtual private networks.
“Australia has been in one of its worst droughts, but on the day of our test drive it poured. We got great reception through eucalyptus trees, even where mobile phone service dropped out, at more than four kilometers (2.5 miles), even though the base stations are designed for (a range of) two to three kilometers, said Judy Slatyer, director of CKW Wireless.
The i-Burst system does not require line-of-site and, in fact, “performs better in a scattering environment,” as when it rains or is foggy, said Nitin Shah, chief strategy officer for ArrayComm. It also can perform in spectrum bands ranging from several hundred megahertz up to 3 gigahertz, he said.
In the CKW pre-commercial phase, conducted “to make sure we get the end-to-end system right,” there will be approximately 500 customers using the network, Slatyer said.
Half of these will be consumers looking for a substitute to advanced digital subscriber line service, which can be time consuming to obtain and install, even where it is available, she said. Another 40 percent will be individual road warriors, while the remaining 10 percent will comprise one or two corporate enterprises.
Mobile operator Vodafone Australia and Internet service provider OzEmail will provide their own branding, marketing and sales for the CKW i-Burst network, which will operate on a wholesale business model, Slatyer said.
By May 2003 when the second phase of its rollout begins, CKW plans to have in place full coverage for the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Subsequently, the carrier, whose licenses encompass about 80 percent of Australia’s population, plans to provide service in other major cities, including Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra, which is the nation’s capital.
Cell site deployment will be quick and relatively easy because of the collocation opportunities afforded by CKW consortium partners Vodafone Australia and Crown Castle International Corp., Slatyer said. Total Communications Infrastructure, a network construction company, and CommWorks, a networking infrastructure provider, also are part of the consortium.
Earlier this year, ArrayComm entered into a licensing partnership with Kyocera Corp. to commercialize, manufacture and sell its i-Burst system worldwide.
