Interview with Tom Smyth, Managing & Technology Director at Wireless Connect
Part Two: Enabling Future Success
What support do SMEs require in order to succeed?
Let me start by answering that as an ISP, and as an SME consumer of ISP.
First and foremost is the need for more joined up thinking from our regulators and legislators – particularly in the context of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act. Second is continued support for general authorisation and licence-exempt spectrum sharing within the industry. This is massively important, and I’ve been heartened to see there has been strong support for this, in particular from the Commission and some member states. Third, and critical for small ISPs across Europe, is having sufficient spectrum to go beyond the lofty targets of 2030 and enable ISPs to be recognised for the great work they do. It gives SME ISPs a credible platform to continue to develop and invest in the future for greater connectivity. This allocation of spectrum matters, and these businesses need to make their voices heard. We all know what we can do with the technology already, and having the full upper 6 GHz band will help us share that bandwidth with consumers – it’s why we got into this business in the first place.
Businesses like Wireless Connect have been operating in 5.8 GHz band for seventeen years now. 5.8 and 5.9 to 7.1 GHz are all similar frequencies; we understand how they work, and the equipment is there. We can harness these and use them to successfully deliver to the ‘last mile’. It’s efficient to deliver fixed wireless to the outside of a building while also deploying access points within a building to provide adequate local coverage. If one looks at the physics of Wi-Fi vs mobile connectivity, with mobile technology so much energy is lost trying to transmit from the mobile tower outside through premises walls and thermal installation to the citizen’s device inside. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) only aims to deliver from the tower to the receiver on the outside of the house (therefore no energy loss). Wi-Fi then provides the last few meters of crucial connectivity to the user without any obstruction, without any waste of energy trying to go through exterior walls. More spectrum, as far as I’m concerned, is the only way forward for our customers from an economical and sustainable perspective, and going further, it is less intrusive to their home and business.
Are hybrid deployment models the key to deployment success?
In many ways, there is an element of encouraging mobile devices to offload downloads from the 5G tower to a Wi-Fi access point if it is in range. This practice is common, and giving more spectrum to Wi-Fi can mean that it is faster, while 5G networks in populated areas are freed up for users that are outside and not connected to Wi-Fi.
Furthermore, wireless-based ISPs can actually be complementary to the investments made by the larger telcos, who are focusing on the more dense, urban populations. A lot of the smaller ISPs that invest in their own localities are basing their services on proximity, rather than carrying out a statistical analysis of the most densely populated areas and ascertaining which would be the most profitable. This is something a traditional telco company would do.
Giving the Wi-Fi and fixed access bodies more spectrum can enable a complementary, holistic solution to Europe’s connectivity problems. This is why it’s so essential small ISPs are heard on the 6 GHz topic – we need it, and the consumer needs it. It would also be consistent with European policies across the board. There is a track record of giving spectrum to 5G deployments, but it’s important other complementary technologies are supported by the Commission and the members states.
What are your hopes for the future?
I’d like to see the European Commission working hand in hand with member states to shepherd them towards licence exemption and expand into the upper 6 GHz. That will be absolutely crucial for future developments. As a fixed wireless operator who came from humble beginnings, we understand the enormous value force multiplier FWA and Wi-Fi is for connecting the un-connected. It has allowed small companies like ours to serve hard-to-reach regions quickly and cost effectively. I know there are so many areas in the developing world requiring internet access. Fixed Wireless and FWA has a track record of being a cost-effective solution for connecting low population density regions to the internet. As a result of this essential characteristic of FWA, it has been particularly successful in South America, and we’ve been particularly pleased to see the 6 GHz allocated the way it has been by the authorities in this region. Now we need to see this happen in Africa and areas of Asia as well. I would invite anyone to look at the statistics regarding the amount of people using fixed wireless and Wi-Fi based FWA, as they are amazing.
The great thing about Wi-Fi is that it democratises access: it’s not specialised or proprietary, and chipsets are accessible and come at a low-cost. It’s fascinating to see how organisations like Cambium Networks are using these in custom platforms to enable ISPs deliver reliable Internet services in some of the most challenging parts of the world. I suppose the key thing is this – there are 350 million people in the US and 450 million in Europe. If you’re doing a Wi-Fi chip run, do you do it for a combined 800 million people across the globe, or do you select the best option available for each region? A mobile chip for certain countries, a Wi-Fi chip for the US? We can have huge economies to scale so long as regions align their allocations better, so we can run a lot more chips and enable greater, more suitable coverage.
This will also reduce the cost of equipment for SMEs and consumers, making it a win-win all round. We’ve seen the expensive, inaccessible proprietary technologies come and go, but the reality is, if our small ISP didn’t have access to low-cost, standardised, high performance Wi-Fi chips in fixed wireless products when we started out, we wouldn’t have been able to serve our customers and community. Because there is now an open, accessible standard it's made a huge difference already, and we need to encourage this trend to continue into the future. We would like policymakers focus on this and help us help each other more going forward.