Lucent spin-off Flarion is conducting market trial network of wir...

configuration of technology to FCC hq this week, including truck with 40’ antenna, demonstrating broadband cellular air interface technology for Office of Engineering & Technology and Office of Plans & Policy officials Tues. Commissioners will see demonstration of IP-based system later this week. System is operating in 700 MHz UHF band under FCC experimental license. While mobile wireless data service of Metricom, which entered Chapter 11 protection last year, relied on picocell technology to keep Internet users connected while moving, Flarion can overlay its system over wireless carrier’s existing network, CEO Ray Dolan said. As result, technology can allow wireless carriers to deploy wireless data offerings by using only 1.25 MHz air link, he said. Unlike Metricom’s Ricochet network, which used unlicensed spectrum, Flarion’s service is “basically an overlay” to cellular architecture, Dolan said. But Flarion’s offering is similar to Ricochet’s in that it gives users “native IP” connections resembling those they would receive from desktop broadband connections, he said. Flarion’s mobile broadband system uses packet- switched radio access network that transports IP services over air from IP network to user device. System operates at peak data rates of 2 Mbps, with demonstration outside FCC showing rates at 875.8 kbps because it was connected through 2 firewalls to link to FCC local area network, said Peter Carson, vp-business development & mktg. Company pitches technology as providing 3G-like services using all-IP technology that demands far less spectrum. Part of company’s infrastructure is RadioRouter, which overlays onto existing cell sites and spectrum of wireless carrier and creates link to edge router in IP network. Among aspects of offering that has created interest among carriers is ability to provide dynamically allocated priority access service (PAS), Dolan said. While Flarion hasn’t spoken directly to govt. agencies such as National Communications Service, Dolan said technology had drawn carrier interest because it had quality- of-service function that allowed priority users to gain access to network with virtually no disruption to existing voice users on system.