Wi-Fi is a workhorse for the wireless Internet service providers who deliver broadband Internet to places that cable and telco providers do not choose to serve. Wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) typically mount antennas atop communications towers and use wireless radios instead of fiber or cable to connect to the end point. Because wireless technology is used to connect two fixed points, the term ‘fixed wireless’ is often used to describe the WISP offering.
Many WISPs started in rural America and are now expanding to more dense areas as wireless technology evolves. Wi-Fi is a big part of that evolution, and new technology is enabling Wi-Fi chips to transmit for much greater distances than they could in the past.
100 kilometers
Entrepreneur Brian Hinman, a co-founder of PolyCom and PictureTel, has turned his attention to wireless access technologies and has founded Mimosa Networks to create long distance, high-speed Wi-Fi radios. The company has partnered with chip developer Quantenna Communications to re-engineer its Wi-Fi chipsets.
“We’re taking that 802.11ac silicon and reprogramming that chip from the foundation up to address point-to-point backhaul applications,” said Hinman. “We’re using the power of the physical layer and it is capable of a PHY rate of 1.7 gigabits per second. At 5 gigahertz in an outdoor environment you can send for very long distances. We have links now that are 100 kilometers long.”
Mimosa Networks is taking on competitors Ubiquiti, Microtech and Cambium Networks in the market for wireless access technologies for WISPs. These companies are learning that customers in rural and suburban America want high-speed Internet and are often looking to the WISPs to deliver it.
“Where fiber ends off is where we begin,” said Hinman. “From that point you would put up a B5 backhaul radio, for example, and be able to shoot out into communities to another place where, for example, you put up an access point and then from that point it would be point to multipoint for a range of homes and businesses in that area.”
Washington’s role
The Federal Communications Commission has recently limited out-of-band emission in the 5 GHz band, due to concerns about wireless signals interfering with terminal Doppler weather radar. Since issuing new rules this spring, the FCC has heard comments from a number of wireless companies including Motorola and Mimosa Networks.
Meanwhile the FCC is considering another proposal that would open up the 10 GHz spectrum band for unlicensed, or “lightly licensed” use. Proponents argue that the 10 GHz band is well suited for the needs of WISPs because it can propagate for long distances and it is lightly used at this time.
Watch the full interview with Brian Hinman of Mimosa Networks:
Featured Image Copyright: doomu / 123RF Stock Photo
