Verizon trials broadband wireless technology

By Susan Rush
from CED Broadband Direct, August 5, 2002

Verizon Communications is testing the broadband wireless waters in Northern Virginia through a field trial with BeamReach Networks.

Verizon is trialing BeamReach's broadband fixed wireless technology, which is designed to deliver speeds up to 1.5 megabits per second up to five miles from the system's distribution antenna.

Verizon hopes to determine whether BeamReach's technology will complement and extend its DSL service reach, which is limited to residences and businesses within 18,000 feet of a CO. "If this new technology works as designed, we can greatly expand the availability of Internet access and other products to our customers," says Mark Wegleitner, Verizon's chief technology officer. "We are testing the technology to examine its ability to provide our customers with the same functionality, quality of service and reliability of the current copper-wire based product," he says.

Fifty Verizon employees in Fairfax County are trialing the technology at their homes. Later this year, 50 Verizon customers will be added to the mix. Verizon decided on Fairfax County to test the non-line-of-sight technology because the landscape has a variety of terrain and foliage, and is densely populated.

Two base stations, which are connected to Verizon COs via fiber-optic circuits, have been placed in cellular towers in Herndon and Centerville

Depending on the outcome of the trial, which is slated to run until the end of the year, Verizon will consider a wider deployment to customers in 2003.

Last November, the FCC has granted BeamReach an experimental license in the wireless communications service (WCS) band to conduct trials of its broadband wireless access systems throughout the continental United States. Verizon owns an equity stake in BeamReach.