Posted: 09/2000

Wireless Consortium Seeks Open Standard
By Bruce Christian

Six leading communications and
semiconductor companies have formed the Wireless DSL Consortium (www.wdslconsortium.com)
to accelerate the establishment of open standards and deployment of broadband
wireless access solutions.

Currently, service providers can select from a number of technologies paralleling the origins of the cellular industry. The consortium expects to help define, develop and implement interfaces for broadband wireless access products that operate within MMDS and the 3.5 GHz bands.

It
also will provide a forum for the testing and verification of standards-based
products, offer advice to carriers on technology issues and become a resource to
the FCC (www.fcc.gov), the International
Telecom-munication Union (www.itu.int) and
other regulatory bodies on spectrum management and interoperability.

The
founding members are ADC Telecommunications Inc. (www.adc.com),
Conexant Systems Inc. (www.conexant.com),
Gigabit Wireless Inc. (www.gigabitwireless.com),
Intel Corp. (www.intel.com), Nortel Networks
Corp. (www.nortelnetworks.com) and
Vyyo Inc. (www.vyyo.com).

In a prepared
statement announcing the group’s formation, WorldCom Inc.’s (www.wcom.com)
Wireless Solutions division’s chief technology officer Jonathan Mapes says,
"There is tremendous value in the creation and adoption of open standard
interfaces for the broadband wireless market. Open standards are a critical
maturation step for widespread service deployment.

“Efforts such as these by the consortium will help facilitate the adoption of open standards and will work to speed the deployment of broadband wireless services to residential and business users.”

The consortium will move quickly to develop standards that a broad range of industry participants support, according to the release.

Timing
is important because broadband wireless access is in commercial trials on a
global basis. Sprint Corp. (www.sprint.com)
and WorldCom have begun such trials in a number of markets. Latin American
operators also deploy services in the MMDS band.

The standard the group seeks will incorporate multicarrier technology enhanced by smart antenna and smart system technologies to increase system capacity and coverage. It also will seek to provide robust operations in the most challenging wireless environments.

Currently, the 2 GHz to 4 GHz band is suited for broadband wireless services to the home and business. The FCC has allocated spectrum in the 2.5 GHz MMDS band for the U.S. market, but international authorities are making spectrum available in the 3.5 GHz band.

The
consortium has retained Gartner Group Inc. (www.gartner.com)
to advise on industry issues, strategies and best practices.