6 megs up and 3 megs down? That's more for internet fileservers and webservers. Home users don't send that many packets upstream, even if they're sharing MP3s to RIAA's chagrine. Maybe it's a typo.
TDS' speedy WiMax Internet service 'very big'
Jeff Richgels 1/22/2008 10:04 am
TDS today launched a new high-speed Internet service with a twist.
TDS' "WiMax" fixed wireless service features Internet download (from the Internet to a user) speeds similar to cable and phone company broadband, but upload (from a user to the Internet) speeds that are much faster.
"This will be very attractive to serious gamers and home businesses," said Barry Orton, a UW-Madison professor of telecommunications. "It could be very big."
For residential users, WiMax will be offered in three levels: 6 megabytes per second upstream/3 Mbps downstream, 4/2 and 2/1.
Cable and phone Internet services offered locally don't reach 1 Mbps upstream. AT&T, for example, offers its Yahoo! DSL Internet service in four speeds, ranging from 768 kilobytes per second downstream and 384 Kbps upstream for $14.99 per month to 6 Mbps/768 Kbps for $34.99 per month.
While direct price comparisons are difficult because of the multitude of bundles and promotional offerings from all providers, TDS' WiMax prices are roughly comparable to cable and phone, especially for bundles of Internet and phone service.
For just Internet service, TDS is offering 6 Mbps/3 Mbps for $55 per month, 4 Mbps/2 Mbps for $50, and 2 Mbps/1 Mbps for $45.
Add in phone service that includes 30 minutes of long distance per month and unlimited local calls, and prices are $60, $55 and $50, respectively. Increase the long distance to 300 minutes per month and prices go up by $5. Going to unlimited long distance adds another $5.
And TDS is offering special promotional prices for the first three months of service at $40, $45 and $50 for the bundles with 30 minutes, 300 minutes and unlimited long distance, respectively. There is a pro-rated fee for canceling within the first two years.
Orton said WiMax is another threat to local cable provider Charter Communications, which he said has been able to use the "stickiness" of its Internet service to keep people from switching to satellite TV.
"I think the real logical bundle would be satellite TV and (TDS WiMax) for Internet and phone," Orton said.
Satellite high-speed Internet service is available, but it is relatively expensive. AT&T and Verizon bundle with satellite TV but the phone companies' DSL high-speed Internet services do not reach all of their service territories.
TDS bundles DISH Network satellite TV with its services.
For business customers, TDS will offer WiMax with equal download and upload speeds of 4 Mbps and 2 Mbps in packages that include some special services starting at $129 per month, TDS spokeswoman Deanne Boegli said.
TDS said its WiMax is available to anyone within two miles of its towers on the east and west sides. About 55,000 residential customers and 10,000 business customers will be able to get WiMax service initially. TDS employees have been testing the WiMax service for several months.
The Isthmus is not covered right now, due to its topography and taller buildings, TDS said, but the company said new technology is coming soon that will allow coverage of the Isthmus.
Eventually, the company aims to offer WiMax in a 35-mile radius around Madison, although it has no timeline for the full build-out.
"Right now we're planning to expand our coverage area throughout the city of Madison to cover any dead spots and boost the signal and Internet speeds," said Scott Meier, lead WiMax project manager for TDS.
TDS has two units locally. TDS Telecom is an "incumbent" provider offering landline phone and Internet access in several area communities. TDS Metrocom is a "competitive" provider licensed to compete against AT&T in its Madison territory in the days before broadband.
WiMax enables TDS to compete against AT&T without leasing the lines of the telecom giant. And it enables the company to go beyond its TDS Telecom and Metrocom areas so it can compete in, for example, communities such as Oregon, Sun Prairie and McFarland where Verizon is the incumbent phone company. However, agreements will need to be reached for people to be able to keep their phone numbers in those areas when switching to TDS WiMax, Boegli said.
"We're focused on our Metrocom footprint right now," Meier said.
Although WiMax is a wireless service, it is very different from the well known Wi-Fi service often offered in places like coffee shops, and by Mad City Broadband and many telecom companies.
Wi-Fi can be accessed with a laptop computer or any other device that is wireless capable. In some cases, Wi-Fi access is completely open. In others, a fee is required and access is password-controlled.
Security often is a major issue with Wi-Fi networks, as The Wall Street Journal detailed in a recent story.
TDS WiMax is more akin to cable or DSL than Wi-Fi. The service comes from towers to equipment at a home or business. Lines run from the receiving equipment to a computer or home router.
"Without the equipment you can't capture the signal," Meier said. "And every WiMax antenna talks to the tower differently so a conversation one antenna is having with a tower is completely different than the conversation another antenna is having with a different antenna."
There are multiple levels of encryption, he said, and TDS will sell a home router that has encryption built in since many people using routers to set up in-home wireless service neglect to secure it.
Another difference is that while Wi-Fi uses unlicensed public frequencies, TDS WiMax exclusively uses licensed spectrum it acquired in buying the former SkyCable in 2005.
The equipment is included in monthly service fees; if a person gives up the service TDS takes back the equipment.
Meier said the receiving equipment comes in two forms, depending how far a user is from a tower. One, which is about half the size of a satellite TV dish, mounts on the outside of the home or business. The other, about the size of a book, goes inside, typically on a window ledge.
Topography and other factors may prevent someone from receiving the service, at least until the network is built out farther, but weather does not impact the service, TDS said.
A battery backup will keep the service running for up to two hours when power goes out.
TDS is building its WiMax network for future applications, including making it mobile like Wi-Fi.
"The future has a lot of opportunity, but we have no time frame at all for that," Meier said. "Today we're really trying to focus on doing this right."
There even is potential for TV to be delivered via WiMax, although Boegli notes that WiMax is about positioning TDS to be the "pipeline" provider rather than the content provider since many experts believe TV service providers eventually may become extinct and all video will be delivered a la carte over the Internet in a YouTube-type manner.
TDS has been testing a WiMax system on public frequencies in the Fox Valley, where it has about 1,000 customers, and intends to expand WiMax to its other markets across the country.
To deliver WiMax, TDS teamed up with Alvarion Ltd. (
www.alvarion.com), the world's leading provider of WiMax solutions with more than 3 million units in 150 countries. WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.
Madison-based TDS Telecom and its Metrocom subsidiary have more than 1.2 million access line equivalents in the country. TDS Telecom is part of Chicago-based Telephone and Data Systems Inc., which also includes U.S. Cellular and Waunakee printer Suttle-Straus.
