Fixed Wireless Business

AIR2LAN Pursues the Leading Edge

If you're not expecting to find an innovative, business class WISP in Jackson, Miss., you haven't heard of AIR2LAN.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 30, 2004]

Jai Bhagat, chairman and founder of Jackson, Miss.-based wireless broadband ISP AIR2LAN, is excited about how VoIP will allow him to compete with all other forms of broadband. "We can offer a bundle product to compete very effectively with CLECs, and cable and DSL providers. We plan to offer VoIP to DSL and cable broadband customers. This will give us access to their customer base and hopefully we can convert them to our broadband service at a later date."

The company is using Level 3's VoIP service, which Bhagat says is competitive. "RBOC long distance service for business is typically 4 or 5 cents, and ours is priced at 2.5 cents. Their business line is $60 and our business line is $20."

Bhagat isn't worried about price competition precisely because he has not built his own VoIP network. "Level 3 is very active in this marketplace and I believe they will remain competitive on price."

Plays well with others
Bhagat has always been interested in partnerships, and finds that integrators are a useful source of small business customers. "We will work with those guys and let them continue to do the local integration part. We will continue to work with them for system integration at customer locations and encourage them to be our source for lead generation."

His company nearly merged with fellow WISP US Wireless Online, but the merger was cancelled. Bhagat says that although the merger could have realized real operational efficiencies in back office and network management, he and Doug Kinney, USWO CEO are personal friends. They felt the timing was not right for the merger and it seemed better to pursue opportunities independently of each other. ISP-Planet did not contact Kinney for this article. Bhagat adds that the two companies used different equipment providers.

Good gear, good backbone
Bhagat says he's pleased with the equipment he has now, Trango for the backbone and Cisco and Agere for 802.11b.

In Jackson, AIR2LAN also has a key government customer. It has a contract with the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) to provide IP cameras throughout the Jackson metropolitan area. AIR2LAN provides a wireless T-1 line to the lamp post, and MDOT installs the camera and connects it to power on the lamp post.

Looking to the future
Bhagat is enthusiastic about the potential of WiMax. He hints there are opportunities he's investigating but cannot talk about now. He might be able to expand out to the edge of urban areas, wiring neighborhoods with mesh technology and rural areas of the state with WiMax.

He is eager, however, to describe exactly what WiMax means to him. "It will differentiate our sector from other competitive technologies like cable and DSL. It will change how people use the Internet like cellular telephony did to landline telephone."

—End