Wireless Innovation for Last Mile Access: An Analysis of Cases and Business Strategies

Reaching beyond the wire: challenges facing wireless for the last mile

“…We supplemented the findings from our interviews with a thorough review of applicable sections of the US Code of Federal Regulations, relevant FCC orders and regulations at the state level and other local jurisdictions. This paper does not describe each of the case studies and regulations, as these are profiled in detail in two separate reports (Shapiro et al, 2016;Yankelevich et al, 2016). Instead, we focus on a synthesis of these more detailed studies to arrive at key opportunities and challenges involved with wireless deployment, first as they apply to relatively rural areas where competition may be scarce, but the cost of wireline broadband deployment is potentially prohibitive, and second as relevant for more densely populated geographies with more robust competition in some areas, but unmet needs in others, such as distressed (sub)urban areas.…”

“…This rural-urban divide may be rationalized by the incremental cost of deploying new wireline networks. For instance, a rough estimate for laying fiber is $25,000 per mile, excluding the costs of Ethernet link equipment at fiber end nodes (Shapiro et al, 2016), which leads to especially high labor costs for rural deployments and makes the cost of wireline expansion prohibitive in some rural areas [5].…”

“…First, the deployment of point-to-point fixed microwave links could be advantageous compared to a wireline deployment or extension in rural areas with the appropriate topography. For example, if existing towers or other useable infrastructure exists, an estimated cost range for a fixed microwave link (including endpoint Ethernet costs) is $50,000-75,000 (Shapiro et al, 2016), which can start to make economic sense for deployments that span more than two miles. Moreover, rural areas will typically have a far greater abundance of unused, lower-frequency spectrum available to support last mile broadband service.…”

“…Importantly, because broadcast TV channels are more focused on major metropolitan areas, there is more TVWS available for rural broadband deployment [7]. This has led to a number of rural deployments by CAIs, WISPs and educational institutions around the USA and has led Microsoft to support multiple TVWS projects in the USA and around the world (Shapiro et al, 2016). EBS, which consists of spectrum in the 2,496-2,690 MHz (2.5 GHz) band, is considered by the FCC to be one of multiple mobile wireless bands and has been used to deliver commercial mobile wireless service by Sprint Wireless, which leases the spectrum from educational institutions whose license allows them to lease much of their EBS spectrum to other entities [8].…”

Vehicular Communications Over TV White Spaces in the Presence of Secondary Users

“…The IEEE 802.11af standard is the specification of physical and medium access control layers for wireless local area networks employing TV bands [8], whereas the IEEE 802.22 standard specifies physical and medium access control layers for cognitive radio networks over TV bands [9]. IEEE 802.11af and IEEE 802.22 networks have been proposed to improve broadband access in rural areas [10], [11], provide connectivity in educational initiatives [12]- [14], support agricultural projects [15], and provide connectivity in emergency response plans [16].…”