Wireless Warriors

Wireless providers are stepping up their game as consumers and business users become more sophisticated and demanding of wireless connectivity.

Research firm IDC has highlighted some recent trends in wireless usage. Warren Chaisatien, research manager wireless and mobility at IDC, says non-voice wireless usage (for example mobile data for businesses and SMS, ring tones and gaming for consumers) is growing fast.

"Last year, non-voice revenue made up about 15 percent of carriers’ revenue," he says. Wireless broadband remains fragmented in terms of standards, according to Chaisatien. "Today we have multiple startups rolling proprietary and redundant networks -- BigAir, iBurst, Unwired. All of them say their technologies are WiMAX-compliant but we’ll have to see."

WiMAX will not be widely commercialised until 2006, he says. Until then, wireless broadband as it stands will remain a niche technology without a mass market and compatibility, he claims.

Still, Brisbane ISP and integrator Clipper International is one company that is making great strides in the wireless arena, with the recent completion of what it claims is the largest geographical wireless-capable network in the world.

Ziggy Matve, a director at Clipper, says the company’s network has a total capable coverage area currently in excess of 1029 square kilometres in Brisbane. "We’re actually able to reach a lot further than that, but it comes down to what’s stable and commercially viable for us," he says.

Its Queensland network ranges from the Gold Coast to Caboolture and from Moreton Bay to Stradbroke Island, including the ferries that service the bay, and inland as far as Ipswich. Clipper designs wireless networks and the chipsets that operate within its equipment. It’s also the only distributor in Australia for Senoa wireless products. "I spent a lot of time hunting around Taiwan and Singapore for different wireless products," Matve says.

"Senoa was the only company capable of dealing with that distance up front because they deal with wireless military technology and they pride themselves on that. Also, they were the only ones willing to listen when we suggested changes to their chipset to get the noise and interference factors down. That made a massive difference to the range that we could get and the quality of the signal," he says.

Clipper sells mainly to other ISPs, and the company’s two directors also own an ISP called YLS. "We, the parent company, sell to other wireless ISPs. Our ISP was built and designed purely for marketing purposes. Our main clientele is government and corporate and other ISPs. We prefer businesses but we also find residential is our bread and butter," Matve says.

Clipper also designed WISP, wireless ISP in a box, a new product that sits on the side of a house or post or tower and plugs into a network’s interconnecting points, turning it into a wireless ISP. Matve says the company has experienced "about 500 percent growth in our wireless market" in the past year but he is unwilling to disclose numbers of units sold or total customers.

"People now realise wireless is reliable and that it’s not going to fall over every 30 seconds." Matve admits he has not really done much marketing to date, and prospective customers go directly to YLS.net.au.

He claims the low cost of Clipper’s wireless solution sells itself. ‘There’s several ways of providing data into a wireless node. A node on a post or tower can provide up to 250 people for each module that goes into it. If you were to try to provide high-speed internet to individuals you’d have to pay for tower costs on each one – anything from $15 up to $40 to $50.

"But for wireless, you only require one tower, one main pipeline going into it to provide up to 250-plus customers. You can add more modules and you can just keep increasing it, so cost per person goes down dramatically."

He uses the example of a Brisbane apartment block that has 75 apartments in it. "One connection can do the whole lot. That one connection cost us $26 to put in . . . However, we can sell that one connection to all of those apartments. That’s the real difference. Telstra doesn’t like it, they get a little pissed off," he says.

As for upfront costs, the company charges $199 for the install to cover the cost of "customer point equipment", he says. Matve is also experimenting with solar power to avoid hefty electricity leasing fees.

"We’re able to utilise [state-owned power supplier] Powerlink’s towers to operate off but they charge us $6000 per year for the use of the towers. Also if we go to remote places like Stradbroke Island where they have dodgy power, I really don’t want a node going off and losing 250-plus people. So solar is definitely the way to go," he says.

As wireless uptake increases, Matve keeps an eye on the network. "It could get very crowded on the network if we get too many people on wireless. That could become a problem. Our solution is we’re able to operate in the 5 Gigahertz range where it’s not as crowded. We can move from the 2.4 Gigahertz to the 5 Gigahertz. Our equipment operates in all sections of the range right through to channel 12, which is the legal maximum in this country."

And while still conquering Brisbane, Clipper has its eye on Sydney and beyond. "We’ve already been working with National Health in the UK and a permanent office is being set up there. National Health is getting charged 25,000 pounds for a 2K link by British Telecom."

"Now that same link costs them about 2500 pounds if they go wireless. They’re using wireless to talk between sites. They do pass patient information electronically over there, but Australia still has privacy issues with doing that," Matve says.

There are other opportunities to pursue back home as well. "We’re always working on increasing the range and throughput. We’re also looking into the powerline transmitters, where you can transmit data across powerlines over long distances. We’re also looking at making trains wireless," he says.