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Frequently Asked Questions

Why Go Wireless?

Recent Federal Communication Commission (FCC) publications noted that across the nation, as an average, regional land-line based phone carriers are seeing a DROP in subscribers to the tune of 10 subscribers per month. These subscribers are dropping their land-line subscription in response to their connectivity through wireless cellular service. Also, George W. Bush's FCC Chairman proclaimed that it is the "right" of the American Public to have access to broadband speed internet.

Developing a wireless network can provide a highly profitable revenue stream for any organization that is looking to provide a high-demand service to their unique region. A regional wireless network can be designed to provide nation-wide service to subscribers and can also deploy a broadband internet service with speeds much faster than DSL, without having to incur the expense of laying copper or fiber optic lines to remote and highly rural areas.
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What is the difference between 2G, 3G, and 4G?

The acronyms 2G, 3G and 4G are what the industry use to denote network technologies in terms of "generations." Simply speaking, the movement from one generation to the next the same three things apply: (1) Increased Network Speeds; (2) Increased Data Transfer Rates; (3) The ability to offer subscribers more advanced services.

2G Networks: The 2G Network was first commercially launched in 1991 and today accounts for the large majority of deployed networks. The international standard for the 2G network is known as GSM (Global System for Mobility) and is estimated to be utilized by 80% of all mobile users, accounting for over 3-Billion users across 212 countries. Most 2G GSM Network operate in the 850/1900 MHz and the 900/1800 MHz spectrum bands. These four bands of spectrum are commonly denoted as PCS Spectrum. A 2G Network is very efficient with its available spectrum and can slice up to as little of 3 kHz of spectrum to support a voice call. This allows for small carriers to provide voice service to many subscribers if they should have only limited spectrum. It also provides long battery life in the subscriber's handset. A 2G network is capable of handling up to 270-kbit/sec of data transfer, and is consequently unable to support advanced multimedia services. For this reason, the 2G Network is on the lower end of the technology in the industry and thus only able to provide subscribers with voice and base data services (SMS-texting, MMS-picture texting, WAP-web browsing).

3G Network: The first commercially launched 3G Network happened in 2001 and was developed by the International Telecommunications Union to facilitate growth, increase bandwidth and support more diverse multimedia applications than its predecessor. Commonly, 3G is referred to as a UMTS Network (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), but also referred to as WCDMA or HDSPA. In 2007, the 200-millionth 3G subscriber was connected, which at the time meant that 3G represented 6.7% of the global users as compared to 2G. Today, industry believes that 3G represents close to 20% of the market and growing rapidly as subscribers demand more services from their carriers. Common 3G UMTS Networks operate in the 900, 1700 and 2100 MHz spectrum bands. The spectrum allocation theory behind UMTS differs greatly than that of GSM. Where GSM slices the available spectrum into small chunks to only deliver the data necessary, UMTS requires no less than 10MHz of spectrum be available at all times. This allows for the Network to transfer up to 14.4-Mb/sec as compared to the 270-kbit/sec; an increase of 5,000% as compared to its preceding technology. UMTS Networks provide advanced multimedia technologies to their subscribers including services like streaming audio and streaming video. Likewise, with it data transfer capabilities, UMTS allows carriers to offer broad-band internet service to the covered regions.

4G Network: The forth generation of network technologies is still in its early stages of development. Commonly referred to as LTE (Long Term Evolution), the 4G LTE network is being defined and developed in order to bring even greater capacity in data transfer while simultaneously utilizing more efficient means of spectrum usage. As 3G has been deployed, it has become evident that subscribers want data in much larger quantities than they demand voice connectivity. With no real LTE Networks in commercial deployment, there has yet to be a defined operate spectrum common for the LTE Network, however the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has publically endorsed the LTE solution for their recent auction of the 700-MHz band of spectrum. Like the 2G Network, the 4G LTE Network uses a highly efficient spectrum theory that allows the connectivity to sustain in as little as 1.5-MHz of spectrum, and is scalable to consume as much as 20-MHz of spectrum to provide high capacity delivery to a large group of subscribers simultaneously. The LTE specification is defined to provide up to 100-Mb/sec download data transfer; a 700% increase in capacity from the 3G network. Allowing carriers to provide to their subscribers a wealth of highly advanced multimedia services such has broadcast HD video services, and any other multi-media service that has yet to be developed.
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What is a typical cost to deploy a wireless site?

Obviously this question can not be answered with 100% accuracy for every instance in every region. However, from a ball-park perspective, the industry average to construct a brand-new tower and install GSM radio equipment is about $300,000. To co-locate on an existing tower, the cost drops to about $120,000; as an industry average. Intelegra has successfully sustained construction costs 10% - 25% lower than industry average in the Upper Midwest regions.
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What is spectrum, what is the difference between the types, and how do I acquire it?

Spectrum is the carrier which is used to propagate all types of broadcast communication across the air. When you dial your radio to 100.1, you are dialing in your radio to capture the 100.1-MHz band of spectrum which is being broadcast in your area. Likewise when you install a 5.8-GHz cordless phone in your home, that phone base broadcasts a signal on the 5.8-GHz band of spectrum across your home, and that phone's handset receives that signal for voice calls. Over-the-air television broadcasts in the 700-MHz spectrum. Cellular Wireless Networks operate in this same fashion on a variety of spectrum bands.

All radio frequencies in the United States are "owned" by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). However, the FCC sell licenses to broadcast companies the indisputable right to use bands of spectrum. In 1994 the FCC began selling these licenses in an auction format with the Nationwide Narrowband auction where they sold 10 licenses for a total dollar amount of $617,007,000.

Today, the industry has developed a set of nomenclature that define the cellular spectrum bands and their respective auction sets as follows:

  • PCS - The RF Spectrum within the bands of 850-MHz, 900-MHz, 1800-MHz and 1900-MHz
  • AWS - The RF Spectrum within the bands of 1700-MHz and 2100-MHz.
  • WBS - The RF Spectrum within the bands of 700-MHz

Theoretically speaking, the only difference between these spectrum bands is the band-width. PCS spectrum is also known as Narrow-Band spectrum, due to its commonly high modulation scheme. The WBS spectrum on the other hand is known to be wide band spectrum due to its relatively low modulation rate. The spectrum's modulation rate is defined by how many times per second the wave propagates to its peak sinusoidal position; that is to say, its MHz value. The greater the MHz value the narrower the band. Physics teaches us that radio waves with higher modulation rates are more susceptible to interference. Whereas radio waves with low modulation are capable of penetrating through solid objects. That is to say, a user standing outside next to a concrete building may hear poor voice quality in a 1900-MHz network. Whereas, a user standing in the basement of a window-less all concrete building will not experience poor voice quality in an all 700-MHz network.

Any Network Technology can theoretically be deployed with whatever spectrum a carrier has. However, the commercially available hardware has put some limitations on spectrum usage in respect to Network Technology. Almost all 2G Networks utilize the 4 bands of PCS spectrum; likewise all GSM handsets are able to operate with all PCS bands. Additionally, most 3G Networks utilize the PCS spectrum; however some networks operate with the AWS spectrum due to its lower modulation rate. However, today few AWS capable 3G handsets are commercially available. Likewise, today there are no handsets for 700-MHz usage; however with the FCC endorsing the 4G LTE solution for its 700-MHz spectrum auction, the industry expects to see handsets along with broadcast radios to become commercially available soon.

If an interested organization would like to obtain spectrum license in order to develop a wireless network, all currently available licenses have been awarded out by the FCC. However, each original licensee has the ability to re-sell their awarded license in anyway the seem fit. They may re-sell the license outright as it was awarded to them, or they may slice up their chunk and re-sell off divisions of their license to multiple buyers. They can re-sell under the same boundaries that they were awarded, or define new boundaries based on zip code, census block, area code, country, etc. The FCC maintains a database of who is licensed for all bands and blocks of spectrum across the country. Re-selling and re-leasing of licenses is a common practice in the industry in a quid-pro-quo fashion.
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What elements do I need to deploy a wireless network?

Technically speaking to deploy a wireless network from scratch, an organization needs to coordinate a large number of individual and equally important parameters: Acquisition of spectrum, site(s) zoning, leasing, construction and installation, detailed backhaul deployment, formalization and validation of local and long-distance interconnection agreements, fulfillment and validation of billing services, compliance to local and federal E911 regulations, and the definition of a successful retail sales marketing campaign. Each one of these elements are in themselves highly technical, and equally important to the successful deployment of a wireless network. Which is why, simplistically speaking an organization only really needs two elements: (1) Investment Capital and (2) Intelegra.

Intelegra can provide your organization with 25+ years of knowledge and expertise in this industry, which include executive management of a $20,000,000 regional cellular network. We understand this industry and understand that the true growth in it will come from the areas which have historically been under-served or un-served by the major national carriers.

Let Intelegra put the pieces of this puzzle together for you.
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