Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Mobility of Fixed Wireless Broadband

When the average consumer thinks of wireless broadband, they consider it synonymous with mobile broadband. Wireless and Mobile devices are so tightly interwoven in our day-to-day lives, we naturally assume that anything wireless implies that it is mobile and vice-versa. In fact, I had to be corrected on numerous occasions when I first joined the Accel Networks team. I had to change the way I thought about wireless broadband.

Or did I? The truth about fixed wireless broadband is that it still shares much of the same benefits associated with so-called "mobile" broadband. Of course, as the name clearly says, it is fixed. It is provisioned for one location and, although the last-mile connection is serviced wirelessly, it functions within the c-store, retail store, kiosk, or what-have-you in much the same way as wired broadband solutions do.

So why not drop the mobile connotations altogether? Well, consider for a moment what mobile broadband effectively accomplishes. I'm at home, pull out my smart phone, pop open a browser. Instantly, I'm assigned an IP address (if one isn't already assigned) and routed to the internet via the nearest cell tower. I slide it into my pocket and drive to my in-laws for dinner, pull it out, and repeat. What's happening? I'm effectively provisioning a connection all over again, and in real-time.

Ask yourself this: how many times does a small business move locations? Tier-2 office spaces offer 1 or 3 year lease options because of the agility that growing businesses need. Even retail is always vying for the better location, and if a high-traffic corner can be had you'll break the most costly lease to get there. Or consider expanding businesses entering new markets, new locations, new strip-malls, emerging communities, etc.

How long does it take to get these new locations online and running when copper cable has to hit the d-box, then the punch panel, before finally getting the POS system onto the company network.

Perhaps "mobility" is not the right term, but the business concepts that come to mind are very reminiscent of mobile applications: agility, flexibility, speed of transition, and of course (as Verizon and AT&T are warring over in advertising today) the ubiquitous nature of the network.

So, the next time you get corrected over the jargon -- mobile vs. fixed wireless -- consider this: fixed wireless broadband is anything but immobilized.

Labels: C-store, Fixed Wireless Broadband, Retail