The wireless last mile

Phone companies losing broadband ground may have to embrace their enemy, wireless metropolitan-area networking itself about to take off now that a new standard, IEEE 802.16, has been adopted. Creating a wireless network is relatively simple. At its heart is a base station, which can be put on top of a building's roof, a cellular tower, or even a water tower. The base station is the bridge between the wired world of the Internet, on one end, and subscribers, with whom it is connected by radio waves, on the other. It largely takes the place of the DSL server in a phone company's central office With each station generally serving a 10- to 15-km radius, base stations can be put up where they're economically justified. The issues involved in the wireless last mile are discussed in this article.