LAN services set to go wireless

What's now a trickle of wireless LAN services from carriers, mobile operators and Internet service providers could turn into a torrent by year-end.

Enterprise users will be able to buy wireless LAN design, installation and maintenance services from providers, which will bundle 11M bit/sec - and in the future, 54M bit/sec - local networks with a range of services.

Among those at the forefront of this trend are start-ups such as MSC Networks, originally a Web portal company for a shopping mall developer, that is now a full-fledged 802.11b network provider and marketer of wireless services.

In addition, Cisco and Agere Systems are aggressively courting a range of service providers to provide wireless LAN gear.

BellSouth launched last month what is basically a wireless LAN deployment service aimed at business customers. It builds and runs IEEE 802.11b wireless LANs, based on Cisco's Aironet gear, and typically combines this with high-speed Internet access and other services. The carrier wants to expand services next year by working with hotels and similar venues.

Wireless services by carriers and other providers have until now focused on the local loop, wireless Internet via cellular networks and emerging mobile commerce opportunities. This focus meant service essentially terminated at customer networks. But 802.11b in-building wireless networks are breaking new ground.

"This is clearly a new model for carriers," says Joe Lardieri, director of data solutions for BellSouth. At one level, he acknowledges, the wireless LAN work is similar to outsourcing handled by such companies as Electronic Data Systems and IBM Global Services. Service providers are starting to see wireless LANs as a way to extend new data and sometimes voice services to new markets.

"We're leveraging those things we've done well [traditionally]. So I can create an in-building wireless infrastructure, then integrate things like virtual private networks as well as links to the Internet," Lardieri says.

This kind of service package has potentially a far wider appeal to a larger audience than what's been called "public access" wireless LANs. These public LANs are being installed at airports, convention centers and hotels, where (usually for a fee) laptop users with an 802.11b interface card can use the Internet or make a VPN connection to their corporate networks.

On deck

LANs based on 802.11b wireless products let service providers deliver a raft of new offerings, such as:

•Customized in-building wireless LANs

•High-speed Internet access

•Wireless retail point-of-sale systems

•Remote video camera systems

•"Public access" LANs at coffeeshops, restaurants, etc

•Voice services via wireless voice-over-IP technology

Wireless LAN vendors and the carriers also see potential in this market.

Cisco insiders say they are talking with almost every major carrier and service provider about 802.11b-based services.

A spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless says the carrier is evaluating such an offering. "We see it as a complementary service to [upcoming] 3G services," she says, but declines to elaborate. AT&T Wireless, WorldCom and Sprint did not return calls by press time.

Nokia, too, is working with mobile carriers, especially in Europe, where it has 10 pilot networks running. Many of these are aimed at public access deployments and, like Verizon, as a complement to 3G or 2.5G services, says Setto Kolari, general manager for Nokia's wireless LAN terminals group.

But the carriers see 802.11b connectivity as part of a new type of "data subscription" that eventually will give users access to different types of wireless networks, either local or long-distance, depending on what's available in a given location, Kolari says.

Much smaller companies offer some of the most innovative and aggressive services. Equity One, a Florida real estate investment trust specializing in building and running shopping centers, created MSC. MSC's original mission was to host Web portals for the various properties, letting tenants have Web pages that described their stores, hours, location and so on. But the tenants kept pressing for more.

"It became evident that the key [requirement] was high-speed Internet access at reasonable costs," says Diane Venitelli, who joined MSC in October 2000. "Our goal was to become more of a networking company."

MSC contracts with AT&T for T-1 and fractional T-1 circuits to the shopping centers. Then, the company designs and installs a wireless LAN, using equipment from Agere, to cover the property and various tenants. A router links the wireless LAN with the T-1. "Installation is a cinch," Venitelli says. "It takes about two and a half days to get a shopping center 'lit up' by two guys."

By using wireless LANs, MSC cut costs - compared with an all-wired installation - by 30%. "The tenants get high-speed broadband access at much less of a cost than they would on their own," Venitelli says. "For a fractional T-1, we charge $79 a month, with 64K bit/sec guaranteed and no restrictions if your traffic bursts higher. Nobody else comes near that."

Now, MSC offers a range of other services. With a partner, MSC can set up a digital archiving server at a site, install new or link existing video cameras, and let businesses remotely monitor cash registers, back offices, storefronts and so on. Digital cameras connect over the 802.11b wireless backbone.

As these services grow, one of the bigger concerns is security. Security requirements for 802.11b users vary greatly. BellSouth, for example, evaluates them on a case-by-case basis. Other service providers apply a range of available solutions: firewalls, VPNs and various encryption schemes.

LAN services set to go wireless

On deck

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