Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Woos Early Adopters with Fast Wireless

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:00:12 -0400

Nextel Woos Early Adopters with Fast Wireless
By Jason Lopez
Wireless NewsFactor
April 15, 2004 5:08PM

"Broadband in America is like the chicken-egg thing," says Lee Rainie,
director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  "People won't
be interested in paying more for it until there are cool new things to
do with it, and the guys who make cool new things won't make them until
there's a bigger market."

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Wireless broadband is an
inevitable technology -- one that
most consumers do not yet know
they need. Nextel
Communications is the latest service
provider to unveil a wireless
broadband service for its customers.

Nextel Communications says its
service, which had been operating in
a test version since February,
covers about 1,300 square miles in
the Research Triangle area that
includes Raleigh, Durham, and
Chapel Hill in North Carolina.

Gadget Junkies
The connections are fifty times faster than dial-up, according to the
company, and can be accessed via desktop, laptop and handheld computers.
A Nextel wireless-broadband account includes bundled ISP services, seven
e-mail accounts, 70 MB of online storage, and public, private and static
IP addresses.

The firm is launching the service into favorable waters. The Research
Triangle is home to a tech-savvy customer base. "These are wired
road-warrior types. They're gadget junkies who always want to be on top
of the next technologies," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet
and American Life Project.

However, early adopters probably do not represent more than 5 percent of
the population of Internet users, says Rainie. "It's the next wave who
need more of a value proposition in order to justify the price of
ordering a wireless high-speed connection," he told NewsFactor.

Chicken vs. Egg

Wireless broadband most likely will not take the market by storm for a
while. The infrastructure and applications need to be built up.
"Broadband in America is like the chicken-egg thing," Rainie remarked.
"People won't be interested in paying more for it until there are cool
new things to do with it, and the guys who make cool new things won't
make them until there's a bigger market."

Nextel says it will continue to test its service throughout the year in
anticipation of offering it in other markets. The firm says it is
committed to rolling out wireless broadband even though demand may take
time to coalesce.

"We expect much greater demand for wireless broadband service now that
speeds are comparable to DSL and cable-broadband connections, with the
additional benefit of access while on the go," said IDC's Scott Ellison,
who covers wireless and mobile communications.

The Federal Communications Commission expects wireless broadband to be
in use in 100 million American homes by 2010.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Nextel_Woos_Early_Adopters_with_Fast_Wireless&story_id=23729

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