Contents - Connect-World

Wireless Internet
amounts of network intelligence within
the networks themselves. Devices void
of intelligencetelevisions and telephones,
for exampleare placed at the
outer edges. The Internets intelligence,
on the other hand, is situated at
the extreme outer edges of the network.
The network, in fact, offers no intelligence
whatsoever, a key differentiator
structurally and a significant underpinning
for supporting the Internets continued
global proliferation.
The borders of the Internet are as
unique as they are diversified. They are
fashioned from copper twisted pairs for
dialup, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
over twisted pairs, high-speed fibre,
Multipoint Microwave Distribution
System (MMDS) satellite, cellular,
broadband over cable, or wireless
broadband, both licensed and unlicensed.
In short, the Internet has become the
undisputed master of network interconnectivity.
Given the diverse nature
of its interconnectivity, with all that
intelligence spread out along the outer
edges of its network, the Internet offers
the lowest barrier to entry of any communications
technology. Combined
with mans insatiable appetite for
information, it is extremely easy to see
why the Internet has grown at such a
rapid rate and to such mammoth proportions.
Technologies that use wire, cable and
fibre are destined to remain as integral
parts of the communications technology
mix, but most likely will never again
experience the growth rates they once
did. These types of networks are least
likely to see substantial new growth,
due to the high cost of installation.
In Asia-Pacific, just as in Europe or the
Americas, it is not unusual to incur an
average near-urban installation cost of
US$3,000 for every dwelling passed,
even before the dwelling itself is connected
to the network. In urban areas,
though population density is greater
and suggests increased economies of
scale, the costs are typically higher. In
rural areas, an obvious lack of population
density fails to justify the substantial
capital investment required for
wired or fibre network expansion.
For Asia-Pacifics communication and
information technology to advance
throughout the region at a rate commensurate
with its growing appetite for
knowledge and information, affordability
is paramountboth for the
provider and the subscriber. An unlicensed
wireless approachwireless
that operates in frequency bands that
can be used without licensingprovides
the only reasonable solution,
especially when the typical near-urban,
per-dwelling capital investment can be
as low as US$9.
Beyond capital expense, modern equipment
deployments associated with
unlicensed wireless require minimal
intersystem coordination, which in
turn helps minimise planning and
management. While there has been
much discussion about back office efficiencies
such as billing, the fact is that
a back office operation in an unlicensed
wireless setting plays a minor role at
most.
The unlicensed wireless approach to
last-mile delivery of the Internet
strongly suggests a new economy of
scale. Yet the economic reality actually
is a diseconomy of scalethe most
cost-efficient wireless Internet network
is one that serves a few hundred to a
few thousand dwellings. Networks of
this size operating in a typical nearurban
environment can be profitable
even where some neighbourhoods have
market penetrations as low as two or
three per cent.
Unlike wired networks burdened with
US$3,000-per-dwelling capital investments,
their unlicensed wireless counterparts
do not have to get every person
in every dwelling to sign up for service.
Asia-Pacifics insatiable appetite for
information and knowledge, just like
the flowers preparing to burst into full
colour, forms the basis for all kinds of
new opportunities, as well as new challenges.
On one side is the requirement
for network expansion so that more
people throughout the region have
access to the Internet. On the other
side is the bandwidth requirement. As
demand for more content and new,
more complex applications grows, so
does the challenge to ensure that
enough bandwidth is available to deliver
all of what people wantto all of the
people who want it.
Around the world today there are more
than 600 million Internet users. The
largest groupsome 190 millionis in
Europe. The second largest group187
millionis in Asia Pacific. North
America ranks third with 182 million.
However, the data paints a much different
picture when Internet users are
presented as a percentage of population.
Across Europe, about 37 per cent of the
population has Internet access, whereas
in North America, nearly 60 per cent
of the population is connected. In contrast,
in Asia Pacific the 187 million
Internet users account for only six per
cent of the regions total population. If
that were to jump suddenly to the level
of North America, nearly two billion
additional people would require
Internet connection!
To accommodate effectively Asia
Pacifics hunger for Internet-based
knowledge and information, as well as
the broadly anticipated increased
bandwidth requirements, wireless
specifically in the form of unlicensed
wireless broadbandappears to be the
only logical approach to a common
solution. Not only does wireless broadband
use unlicensed spectrum, equipment
costs for delivery of the Internet
to countless households is minimal.
In all likelihood, telecentresmost typically
public kiosks with Internet-connected
terminalswill begin to appear
on street corners throughout most
Asia-Pacific urban centres. In nearurban
and rural areas, fixed wireless
broadband will become the primary
means for Internet connectivity.
Municipalities are becoming Internet
service providers. Emerging economies
in particular already recognise the
value of the Internet for its ability to
promote knowledge-based economic
and social growth.
The Internet is a tool that promotes literacy
and has the ability to help lift a
communitys citizenry from poverty. It
looks for a growing number of municipalities
across the region to provide
Internet access to its citizens who yearn
for a higher quality of life. Economic
growth will accompany and ultimately
support these efforts to provide a fertile
ground for the rapid expansion of wireless
broadband throughout the region.
Rapid growth of wireless technology
provides the perfect opportunity for a
new variety of carrier. As traditional
telecom carriers fade into the background,
along with their high-cost
infrastructures, new entrants such as
power utilities, railroads and major
real estate developers will use their
land holdings and rights-of-way to take
advantage of low-cost wireless technology.
These new entrants to the communications
knowledge-and-information
delivery mix are well suited to provide
the big pipe needed to transport the
vast amounts of bandwidth to a growing
number of last-mile wireless broadband
service providers and their customers.
Those who search for the perfect causeand-effect
example need not look
beyond the Asia-Pacific region: the
causemass Internet connectivityis
destined to produce a spectacular effect
in the form of individual knowledge
and prosperity.
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