Another critical piece of the market assessment is to determine the fit of the technical solution with the existing carrier infrastructure needed to support your solution and the specific topology of your target market. At this point in the process you have narrowed the technology choices down to wireless broadband as you preferred solution for a lot of good reasons but within the wireless world there are numerous choices of technology, vendor and implementation - all which are influenced by local conditions. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The first step is to analyze the local environment. We do that through detailed mapping programs, existing service provider data, FCC databases, knowledge of design and success factors of various implementations and expert analysis done specifically for your project.

In this section we integrate the market data gathered from the previous work to determine the geographic areas of interest. Then we consider topology opportunities and challenges to derive a preliminary coverage strategy. This includes potential transceiver locations and backhaul scenarios. Connectivity to the internet may be best achieved through local copper facilities, fiber optics or wireless. We will research and make recommendations on those design decisions.

The deliverable from this section is one or more recommended coverage maps showing potential radio sites and backhaul solutions and a discussion of design factors from our analysis of your market.

Potential Wireless Architectures

Whether you are just beginning your research of the wireless world or have spent years at it you already know there are a confusing array of choices. That is the good and the bad news. There are a lot of vendors investing millions of dollars in developing new and better systems in the wireless space. And the FCC is trying to keep the manufacturers and the service providers motivated by aggressively opening up more spectrum for us to operate in. There is seldom one obvious solution that stands out above the rest - until you begin to fit the technology to your environment and your business objectives. With time and effort and expert guidance from BWE you can narrow the choices to a short list that will meet your needs.

In order to fully analyze and engineer a design a site visit is required, which is included in Module 3, the Broadband Strategic Planning consultation. However, prior to that step we will assist you in making significant progress by eliminating certain technology choices and recommending others for your continued research. To do this we will build upon the marketing and topology research in this study and use that to derive a recommended short list of strategies. Essentially you are hiring a consultant for a few hours to offer an opinion on your solution.

This section will address several key issues: What spectrum - licensed vs. unlicensed? Point-to-multi-point, mesh, WiFi, hybrid? Backhaul and internet connectivity? What class of customer premise equipment? Impacts of hills, foliage, buildings, water? Size of coverage area and potential tower sites? Existing tower lease or new installations? Choices of technologies and opinions on best potential fit for your environment. Since much of the decision process depends on your business strategy we will provide multiple choices which will help the business planning process as well.

The deliverable from this section is a report on wireless architecture choices and the pros and cons of each in your specific market environment.

If you would like to begin the WISP development process you can click here to fill out a business lead form that will gather the preliminary information we'll need to get started.