Determining When a Wireless Site
Fits Your Business Plan

    Wi-Fi is a very real and exciting opportunity where tech savvy entrepreneurs are redefining our world before our eyes. Buzzwords like Wireless Broadband, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Access Point, BTS, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, WAP, Hot Spot 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, 5.8Ghz, CPE, Backhaul, Mesh, Open Source and COTS are all around us. Many are considering joining the ranks of the Wireless Internet Service Providers or WISP’s. Hey, this is not rocket science, right? Nope, rocket science is easier, much easier. You can see the rocket.

    If you fail to plan, plan to fail. It is not enough to just mesh your acronyms, understand the hardware, crack open a box; plug it in, and your Rupert Murdock’s next apprentice. This is business; remember the basics, do the homework. Things like; a business plan, network design, equipment, installation, integration, software specification and cost analysis is just the start and hardly enough to determine if you have a winning return on investment (ROI) model. Back in the days of Wing Commander and dial-up ISP’s it was relatively easy to predict who you could provide services to. You merely did research on available phone number exchanges and calling areas. As long as people had a telephone, ring-ring cha-ching, they were potential customers.

    Now, just because your barber and broker have mastered the buzzwords (sort of) and the spectrum is unlicensed, it does not mean that it is open mike night at the Grand Ole Opery… yet. In the wireless broadband world if you want to maximize that opportunity, you will need to conduct some very advanced field and propagation studies on both radio system range and market penetration. Then after defining the realistic sufferable degradation of your network and understanding the implication of the resulting demographics you may just begin to see the rocket. Predicting the coverage area is a complex and critical task. Contrary to your barber and broker’s best advice this in not plug and play technology and not as simple as reading what the manufacturer says is the maximum range. These numbers are usually under ideal conditions and the most favorable of base station sites.