Evidence abounds that the demand for universal broadband Internet access is increasing, not slackening. Wireless is the best solution in sparsely populated areas, as the governments in the US, India and other countries have acknowledged.
However, the more publicized WiMAX and LTE are not the only answers as Canadian telco T’l’bec showed this week when it selected Vecima Networks’ BWIN wireless broadband technology to cover a large section of sparsely populated land.
Surprisingly, BWIN wireless networking is based on the same DOCSIS technology that Cable Labs developed years ago and which is used by cable TV operators worldwide. By using DOCSIS, BWIN allows service providers to deploy bog-standard DOCSIS gear such as cable modems.
In the deal with T’l’bec, a member of Canada’s Bell Aliant Regional Communications group, Vecima will supply wireless (but not mobile) broadband base stations and customer premise equipment. T’l’bec has 150,000 phone subscribers in 300 municipalities across Qu’bec in an area that covers 750,000 square kilometers.
You just know that a telecom company whose footprint stretches south from James Bay to the US border has to be thinking wireless when it comes to deploying broadband over most of its territory. Vecima said it designed the Remote Rural Broadband System (RRBS) to specifically meet T’l’bec’s needs throughout the Quebec region using radio spectrum recently made available by Industry Canada.
The equipment has successfully passed extensive field trials and installation at customer sites is expected to begin immediately. The BWIN technology that it developed and is used in RRBS products is based on the DOCSIS 2.0 technology used by cable TV companies. One benefit is that T’l’bec can install standard cable modems in customer premises.
Each tower covers an area of about 30 miles (50 kilometers). Broadband speeds are the same as wireline cable broadband that uses DOCSIS 2.0 technology, in the 1 to 27 Mbps range for downstream.
The latency, the length of time from sending a command like download until the response like seeing the download start, is on par with a regular coax-cabled networks, less than 15ms according to Vecima.
Latency is a major problem with satellite broadband, an alternative to wireless broadband like Vecima’s BWIN. On the other hand, if you live in a place where it’s the only broadband available, then you learn to tolerate the delays.
The Vecima gear comes with VoIP Internet telephony built in. T’l’bec has not announced pricing, speeds or availability. Canada-based Vecima also makes WiMAX base station and subscriber station transceivers.
A Vecima spokesperson said BWIN and WiMAX serve different purposes and each is better suited to certain applications. WiMAX is better for multipath support for non-line-of-sight deployments. BWIN is typically better suited to line-of-sight deployments or for lower frequencies. The lower frequencies provide more penetration of the wireless signal.
The company said its gear provides “full carrier-class performance” and is easy to install and set up. The gear comes as fully weatherized units to provide “consistent performance and reliability in the harshest climates.”
And harsh it gets every winter up by James Bay.