Broadband Wi-Fi war looms
By Chin Wong
A Wi-Fi war is about to break out, bringing broadband Internet services to residential users for as low as P900 a month.
On one side of the war is telecommunications giant Smart Communications Inc., which plans to make its extensive network of cell sites do double duty by beaming Wi-Fi signals to homes.
On the other side is an intriguing upstart, Wi-Fi Ng Bayan, which aims to use novel technology to provide faster and cheaper service, and disperse ownership of the network to hundreds of community entrepreneurs.
Last week, Smart began offering its Wi-Fi service on its Web site, promising residential users up to 128 kilobits per second (kbps), or about twice the speed of dial-up connections for P998 a month, with a promotional rate of P788 during a three-month introductory period.
At the same time, however, Wi-Fi Ng Bayan was setting up its network in six Valle Verde subdivisions in Pasig City, offering residential subscribers a much faster 2 megabits per second (mbps) ? about 15 times faster than Smart ? for P900 a month. Subscribers get one month free, while the company does stress- testing on the system.
The company is also testing a Voice over Internet Protocol service with Eastern Telecom, which has provided Wi-Fi Ng Bayan with an E1 connection to the Internet for testing. The company also has a service agreement with PCCW Ltd., Hong Kong?s biggest communications provider.
Similar but different
Both providers work on the principle of beaming Wi-Fi signals to homes equipped with external antennas, but Wi-Fi Ng Bayan has added a number of technological enhancements that gives it the edge, says the company?s managing director George Royeca.
Unlike traditional Wi-Fi deployments that use two-radio systems such as Internet hotspots, Wi-Fi Ng Bayan uses multiradio access points ? designed to its specification by Siemens ? that enable it to offer much higher speeds.
?A two-radio system can be used for a metropolitan deployment but it doesn?t solve the bandwidth requirement,? Royeca says. In two-radio system, he says, one radio is used to distribute the wireless signal while the other is used for backhaul, which means to receive the Internet signal and retransmit it.
?If you give one person two jobs, his efficiency goes down,? Royeca says. ?So as you move down several hops, the speed goes down until you run out of bandwidth. We deploy a multiradio system with every radio doing a certain task ? one for distribution, one to receive the signal, and one to retransmit it, so our backhaul is very stable.?
Another differentiator is that Wi-Fi Ng Bayan uses a meshed network, which means that each access point communicates with the next and can act as a repeater to extend the range and strength of the signal (see box).
It?s unclear if Smart uses the same approach or uses the more traditional hub-and-spoke, where one wired line is attached to an access point to distribute a signal over a limited radius.
Smart offers its Wi-Fi service through its subsidiary, Meridian Telekoms Inc. No officials from either company were available, however, to give more details about their Wi-Fi service.
Ramon Isberto, Smart spokesperson, says the company is launching the service first in the provinces.
Community patrons
Unlike a traditional telco,Wi-Fi Ng Bayan wants to distribute ownership of the network and the revenue it generates to hundreds of entrepreneurs that it calls ?community patrons? who will take care of recruiting customers in their respective neighborhoods and take 25 percent of the gross revenue earned. The company will also require community patrons ? who must put up P250,000 ? to offer free bandwidth on off-peak hours to schools in poorer, neighboring communities.
?Right now, we?re just setting up at Valle Verde and we?re talking about proof of concept, but once it works, since it?s modular, it?s not hard to deploy,? says Carmelo Royeca, the company?s CEO and George?s father. ?Imagine a situation where a group of businessmen in a small town in say, Sultan Kudarat, decide to set up something like this and we replicate this in hundreds of these kinds of communities. At the end of the day, there?s no sovereign debt ? this will all be funded by private individuals. This is the micro-entrepreneurship the government is trying to encourage.?
He adds that the same model of revenue-sharing has worked in other industries, particularly in agriculture.
Nitty-gritty
While the elder Royeca talks of the big picture, George looks after the nitty-gritty, including the local manufacture of external antennas that will cost about P1,500. A Wi-Fi card, on the other hand, will cost about P1,000 and connect a home PC directly to the external antenna.
?This is a fixed wireless system,? George explains. ?It?s not really mobile.?
Home users can take the signal and use a wireless router to share it with others in the same house, however.
?We?re giving you 2 mbps. However you want to use that is up to you. If you want to put a wireless router and propagate it to 10 computers, we don?t mind.?
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