AirNet Communications Corp. has struck a chord with smaller personal communications services licensees and is working on grabbing the attention of A- and B-block PCS operators.
Melbourne, Fla.-based AirNet, a Global System for Mobile communications infrastructure pro-vider, has four GSM-1900 deployments completed with five additional deployments underway with C-, E-, D- and F-block operators.
The key to winning the contracts, said President and Chief Operating Officer Lee Hamilton, is AirNet’s low-cost solution that consists of a broadband software-defined base station that is backhaul free. Today’s backhaul solutions consist of T1/E1 lines that can cost operators thousands of dollars per month, said Hamilton.
Pinpoint Communications, which holds D-block licenses and recently chose AirNet as an infrastructure provider, said it was set to push ahead with Code Division Multiple Access technology, but couldn’t ignore AirNet’s economical solution. C-block operator Southeast Telephone also estimates it saves substantial money each month in backhaul costs.
Hamilton said carriers increasingly are looking for ways to lower their infrastructure costs as intense competition is causing airtime prices to fall rapidly. Smaller PCS carriers-which likely will enter many markets where a number of operators already have launched service-will be required to price their service aggressively.
Hamilton believes AirNet has an opportunity to grab expansion contracts from existing A- and B-block GSM operators that are looking to build out their footprints cost effectively.
Hamilton believes many operators today cannot afford to expand their networks with their existing vendors. AirNet’s open-interface base stations operate with mobile switching centers manufactured by major manufacturers like Nortel Networks, TeCore and Telos. AirNet said it has garnered one expansion contract with an unnamed C-block operator to add its base stations onto Nortel MSCs.
The tight financing market also could provide a further incentive for A- and B-block operators to choose AirNet, Hamilton said. Omnipoint Communications Inc. is one PCS operator to announce that it is halting certain expansion opportunities and other expenditures because of today’s financial market.
Some GSM operators are offering dual-mode GSM handsets that default to analog cellular service to combat the lack of coverage in their footprints, but the strategy may not be working well for some operators because customers want the digital features they purchased and GSM carriers must pay high roaming rates to cellular operators, said Hamilton.
“We targeted the entrepreneur groups, the C through F operators because they need a cost-effective solution,” said Hamilton. “That is giving us what we need to go to the larger operators and international. Existing operators want existing systems.”
