12.02.02
Wireless Week
by Sue Marek
SkySites Move Closer Up To Reality
Firm's Weather Balloons Rise To Fill Gaps In Rural Areas
Chandler, Ariz.-based Space Data long has been preaching the importance of solving coverage gap issues in rural America, but that company's message suddenly is being heard loud and clear–thanks to the impending demise of the analog cellular network.
Earlier this year, the FCC decided to sunset the analog compatibility requirement for cellular phones, making it unnecessary for carriers to support analog after the next five years. Analog still dominates in many rural areas, but that could change. According to a survey by the Rural Cellular Association, 12 RCA members serving the rural United States operate analog-only systems and nine of them have no intention of converting to digital because of the high costs of a digital upgrade and the lack of customer demand.
However, those operators may have an increasingly difficult time supporting their analog network subscribers. Most of these networks were built for customers using 3-watt bag phones, a device that is becoming increasingly difficult to find because most manufacturers are focusing on the newer lightweight handsets desired by most subscribers. Without 3-watt phones, carriers' rural coverage areas will have footprint gaps and likely will need additional towers to maintain their footprint.
Nevertheless, analog's impending demise may bode well for companies such as Space Data, which hopes carriers will see the value in using its technology to fill rural coverage gaps. The company, which plans to launch transceivers connected to latex, expendable weather balloons from 70 sites in 48 states twice a day, says its SkySites are an affordable way to provide rural coverage. The company claims it can launch its weather balloons twice a day, year- round for about $15 million to $20 million a year, significantly less than what most carriers would spend on towers to fill the same coverage area.
According to Space Data CEO Jerry Knoblach, the company will begin beta testing its technology with customers this winter and believes it likely will have a commercial deployment under way next summer. That first commercial deployment probably will be with a telemetry application, an area that Knoblach says is particularly in need of reliable rural coverage. "We have had lots of interest in telemetry applications," Knoblach says. He attributes some of this interest to the impending end of analog because companies such as Numerex, which delivers two-way short text messages using the control channels of the analog network, eventually will have to migrate to the digital wireless network.
So far the company has primarily targeted data applications, specifically narrowband PCS operators because the ReFlex messaging protocol is simple to configure and the company wanted to start with more basic protocols before moving onto more complex networks. However, Knoblach says the company will have a demonstration of voice service in 2003 and plans to have a regional deployment with a wireless voice customer in 2004.
And though Space Data is hoping that carriers will use the company's weather balloon solution instead of building more towers, Knoblach says that SkySites are actually complementary to towers because towers still will be required in high-usage areas. In addition, Knoblach says that once coverage is available in some of these rural areas, usage is expected to proliferate, causing operators to build towers in towns that previously had little demand.
Space Data isn't the only company peddling technology that promises to solve rural coverage areas. Other high-altitude players include SkyTower Telecommunications, Sky Station International and Angel Technologies, all of which use some form of airplanes or airships to provide rural coverage. However, Knoblach says that while these solutions are viable, they must meet FAA regulations and therefore are still a few years away from reality.