<title>Last-mile alternatives: the case for fixed wireless</title>

Abstract

A major challenge in the Asia —Pacificregion, and in every region ofthe world, is satisfying the needs of business, government, and education for high-speed Internet and data access. National telephone companies cannot readily provide the services because their access infrastructures were engineered for voice, not high-speed data. The local loop bottleneck between the customers and the telephone company's switching centers must be replaced to allow high-speed access into the fiber optic Wide Area Network backbone. Fixed broadband wireless access is the logical solution, as P-Com is successfully demonstrating in a number of provinces in China, and in other Asia —Pacific regions and other nations throughout the world.