Fine print
DSL can't always deliver what it promises, so fixed-wireless providers hope to absorb the pent-up demand.
The promise of DSL has teased many small and medium-size businesses like Perlman's. While DSL providers advertise up to T1 speeds, telecom companies have been slow to roll out the service. And in most cases, a business has to be within 5km of the provider's central office to achieve the highest speeds and capacity. What's more, many of the aging Bell systems' copper lines are unable to handle the souped-up DSL signal.
Likewise, the fibre-optic dream is just that for many US businesses. Less than 10 percent of buildings in the United States have fibre running to them. Analysts say the high cost of laying fibre is hindering service rollouts, and that most business will have to wait years before fibre covers enough ground to handle the demandâ€"if ever.
Fixed-wireless providers, some of which own fibre networks and also resell service over the local Bell companies' existing lines, are betting that this demand will allow them to build a lucrative business. David Ackerman, executive vice president of business development and strategic planning at Winstar, a wireless provider, says his company targets business of all sizes. Customers turn to the New York-based service provider because it can offer them the broadband connections and service they can't get from traditional phone companies. By the end of this year, Winstar's service is projected to be available to more than 250,000 US businesses.
Fixed-wireless players include familiar telecom heavyweights such as Sprint and WorldCom. But customers are lining up to buy service from fixed-wireless-only carriers like Winstar and Teligent, thanks to dissatisfaction with phone companiesâ€"-and in spite of market troubles for the telecom sector in general. For example, Winstar, which traded at less than 50 cents a share in early April, announced that month that it was cutting 2,000 jobs. Scores of smaller providers such as Fuzion Technologies Group and Nucentrix Broadband Networks also are scrambling to satisfy subscriber demand.
Fuzion plans a broad nationwide rollout this year into the US Northwest. And it will continue to build on its existing markets in Florida, Georgia, New York, and Colorado. Meanwhile, Nucentrix will focus on widening its territory in Texas and Oklahoma near-term and branch out into Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri in 2002.
