Today, Verizon Wireless introduced a brand new broadband service: LTE-based home broadband internet. Called “HomeFusion Broadband,” the new service uses a specialized device that is professionally installed and connected to a separate router to offer internet service in a house.
The service is what many in the industry call “fixed mobile convergence.” By using the (hopefully) well-built wireless broadband network as the backend for home broadband services in areas where it is difficult to deploy wireline broadband services like cable or DSL, LTE fixed mobile convergence aims to help close the digital divide by offering broadband services to everyone.
Unfortunately, this service will not be cheap. The press release states that usage-based monthly rate plans will begin with $59.99 per month for 10GB of data. Additionally, an initial fee of $199.99 for the antenna device will be required. Verizon has stated that average speeds will initially range from 5-12Mbps down and 2-5Mbps up.
The device itself is a large collection of antennae designed to capture the best signal for service. As such, it probably uses an array of directed (unidirectional) transmit antennae and undirected (omnidirectional) receive antennae in order to optimize the connection for fixed broadband.
This particular use-case is specified in LTE documents as “fixed LTE.” This matters more with LTE-Advanced, which promises theoretical speeds of up to 1Gbps (1000Mbps) for fixed LTE service. Combined with the numerous other improvements to LTE included in the LTE-Advanced specification, this will prove to be a very interesting offering in the future.It is important to note that this service will not be covered by any net neutrality regulations in place in the United States, since the current laws exclude wireless networks. Since the concept of fixed mobile convergence was never addressed in the net neutrality rules, the service falls under the jurisdiction of wireless internet services and is not subject to the rules that wireline internet services have to follow.
Curiously, this also flies in the face of Verizon Wireless’ recent statements to the government saying that it is quickly exhausting the spectrum it has allocated for LTE services and needs more. As T-Mobile pointed out, Verizon has plenty of spectrum for LTE services, and this new offering seems to validate that.
Regardless of the net neutrality, pricing, and spectrum problems, this is a great step forward in helping to close the digital divide and bringing broadband to all Americans.
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