But instead of hauling in its usual, expensive connection gear, BellSouth pulled off the equivalent of a fast pit stop, giving the Florida speedway wireless modems that could communicate with antennas already being tested in the area.
"It was definitely well received," said Glenn Robinson, a technology manager for International Speedway Corp. "If I were looking at this as a private homeowner, it's even easier than installing a cable modem."
About 1,800 U.S. Internet providers use such "fixed wireless" technology to beam broadband access directly to homes and businesses, according to In-Stat/MDR.
The technology has been most successful in rural areas where DSL and cable aren't available. With only an estimated 818,000 subscribers, fixed wireless is the RC Cola of the broadband wars, a quiet presence well behind the Coke-and-Pepsi main players, cable and DSL.
Independent Internet companies might find fixed wireless a more appealing option now that federal regulators are making it much more expensive for upstart data carriers to piggyback on wires owned by Bell phone companies.
However, many independents will find that the phone giants are also kicking fixed-wireless projects into higher gear.
"In the presence of a duopoly -- in some cases a monopoly -- a third player is required to create competition," said Alastair Westgarth, head of Navini Networks, a Texas-based maker of fixed-wireless equipment that is supplying BellSouth's tests in Florida. "We've been looking into this angle, of being the third leg of the stool, for two years."
While cable, DSL, fiber optics and other technologies carry data directly to a home or business, fixed wireless gets around that "last mile" of wires by firing data from an antenna perched on a hilltop or tower. The antenna has its own wired or wireless connection to the Internet.
Most wireless broadband providers save money by transmitting over unlicensed parts of the airwave spectrum, sometimes cooperating with other providers to avoid interference. Other companies, especially large phone companies that can afford spectrum licenses, consider regulated frequencies more reliable.
Unlike WiFi, the increasingly popular wireless technology that links computers within short distances like coffee houses, hotels and airports, one fixed-wireless antenna can serve subscribers within a radius of several miles.
WCM Investment Management, a financial firm in Lake Forest, Calif., switched to wireless broadband service from company called NextWeb after getting frustrated with poor service on landline networks. NextWeb boasts it can offer broadband that is faster than standard high-end business services but at half the price.
WCM's operations director, Tom Rydzeski, said his firm now gets a blazing fast Internet connection of 3 megabits per second (roughly 60 times faster than dial-up) that is more reliable and has tighter security than what Pacific Bell and other wired broadband providers had offered.
"This is probably the best move I ever made," he said.
Fixed-wireless broadband is far from flawless, however.
The antennas generally have to maintain a direct line of sight with subscribers, and service can be knocked out by bad weather or blocked by hills and dense foliage.
The technology has plenty of cautionary tales, notably the bankruptcies of former go-getters such as Teligent, Ricochet and Winstar. Also, excess capacity in the telecommunications industry has made prices for wired data services plunge, slashing the cost advantages fixed wireless boasts.
In February, Nokia discontinued Rooftop, a system that lets fixed-wireless operators use "mesh" networking technology to efficiently send signals to several buildings in one area.
"Fixed wireless is going to be a niche technology for the foreseeable future," said Yankee Group analyst Nicholas Maynard. "I don't see anything that's giving it a huge jolt over the next 12 to 24 months."
Still, wireless broadband has high-level backing. Two senators, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and George Allen, R-Va., have called for the government to free up more unlicensed spectrum for wireless Internet services.
Motorola continues to push its fixed-wireless equipment package called Canopy, and startups like Navini are touting technical improvements that improve the speed of wireless broadband and make it better able to reach mobile computers.
Another innovator, Silicon Valley-based ArrayComm, claims to have a data transmission system so efficient that it is the "the first major advance in radio technology in 30 years."
These kinds of breakthroughs are getting attention at phone companies, which trail cable in the broadband race and would love to reach more potential subscribers. DSL generally is available only within three miles of a phone network hub known as a central office.
In addition to BellSouth's fixed-wireless experiment in Daytona, Verizon Communications Inc. has been conducting tests in Maryland and Virginia and now is looking for an equipment vendor that can help Verizon officially launch service in limited areas soon, spokeswoman Bobbi Henson said.
Sprint Corp. has 50,000 fixed-wireless broadband subscribers who pay $45 to $50 a month, but the long-distance carrier stopped seeking new customers because it decided the technology wasn't sturdy enough or easy enough for consumers to install.
Now, though, Sprint is testing several fixed-wireless breakthroughs in hopes of getting back into the game.
Copyright 2003. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
