Internet Service Providers (ISPs) know that the best customers are also the most demanding. Providing high-speed access for demanding business subscribers in suburban and rural areas is a challenging opportunity due to the lack of infrastructure. High-speed leased lines are expensive and hard to obtain, especially for small, independent local telephone companies. A better solution is needed – one that provides reliable quality of service over longer distances - for more users and avoids giving away access dollars to the telco.

In this scenario, the ISP decides to deploy a wireless network that delivers E1 service to small businesses for voice and Internet access; larger businesses receive E2/E3 service with wayside E1 for data, video, Internet/IP and PBX traffic; and highly cost-conscious subscribers receive 10BaseT IP service. Initially, the wireless network uses a variety of point-to-point dedicated links and point-to-multipoint shared access links, using unlicensed frequencies (see Figure: Business Subscriber Access). Customers are connected to the Internet within weeks, at much faster speeds than before, so that many more users at each location are now online simultaneously. Eventually, the network proves so reliable and profitable that customer commitments allow the ISP to upgrade most of the wireless network to licensed frequencies, with dedicated point-to-point wireless connections, as well as initiating CLEC status for enhanced services to compete with the local phone company. Subsequently, the ISP expands coverage into an adjacent metropolitan area, using a 100 Mbps wireless bridge to establish a link to a remote PoP and provide high-speed backhaul of Internet traffic.

What the Suburbs-located Businesses Waited For

Many enterprises are frustrated by the bandwidth bottleneck because they have branch offices, factories or warehouses located outside the urban core where high speed access is relatively cheap and plentiful. For example, the downtown headquarters may well be the only enterprise location in the metro area with high-speed data connections. Operating LAN facilities at multiple remote locations presents a significant internetworking challenge. Employees at a suburban warehouse or a factory across town are isolated not only from high speed Internet access but also from the large database on corporate LAN servers.

Wireless IP links ideally extend the individual enterprise LANs into a metro enterprise WAN, with minimum additional equipment and cost (see Figure: Enterprise WAN). Free e-mail transport and low-cost Voice over IP telephone access or PBX extensions can be made available to all locations on the enterprise WAN. This application can be even more compelling in developing markets like India where satellite offices typically wait years for even basic telephone service. Most enterprises will turn to a local carrier to provide the actual wireless links, fueling new business opportunities.