Fixed wireless access and wireless local loop have promised much but have not always delivered in the market place. Nevertheless it is a sector in which innovation continues to flourish. Adaptive coding and modulation, various flavours of OFDM, smart antennas and mesh architectures are some of the techniques put forward to enable lower costs, high throughput, non line of sight operation, and customer installation. With widespread acceptance of the new standard, IEEE 802.16, and with the WiMAX Forum promoting compatibility and inter-operability, wireless access may be coming of age.

Quotient’s consultants have delivered several assignments in this sector, including:

• For a multinational telecommunications operator, evaluating strategies for entry into the local loop market
• On behalf of a European regulator, developing appropriate licence conditions for the auction of spectrum at 3.5 and 26 GHz
• Providing technical and design support to several players bidding for fixed wireless access spectrum