Independent Telcos Turn to WiMAX
The Chicago Tribune's Jon Van takes a look at the way independent telephone companies are turning to wireless technology (and specifically to WiMAX) to stay competitive.
"We actually have towers up and are using wireless in Appleton, [Wisconsin]," says Jim Butman of Illinois-based TDS. "We're going to use wireless next to reach our customers in Madison."
"TDS and other phone services have concluded it eventually will be impossible to compete against a dominant incumbent phone company like AT&T unless they control a network that is completely independent," Van writes. "Government regulators no longer enforce rules requiring incumbent carriers to open their networks and lease elements to competitors at low wholesale prices."
The only way for smaller providers to compete these days, Van says, is via wireless.
"Wireless presents a real possibility for competitive carriers to solve that problem of covering the last mile between their network and their customer," says telecom consultant Terry Barnich. "Technology is going to allow them to break free of the stranglehold the incumbents have had on them."