Mobile satellite service provider Globalstar said early tests show deployment of its proposed Terrestrial Low Power Service (TLPS), using managed 802.11-compliant technology over its licensed spectrum combined with adjacent unlicensed ISM spectrum, can deliver a superior Wi-Fi experience.
Trials began last month in the Boston metro area and are expected to be followed by application specific tests in Silicon Valley and other key markets. The tests are being conducted under experimental licenses issued to Globalstar investor and partner Jarvinian Wireless Application Fund.
Recent testing employed carrier-grade equipment manufactured by Ruckus Wireless as well as existing smartphones enabled via a remote firmware upgrade to operate over the experimental channel 14 in the 2.4 GHz band. The 22 MHz-wide channel covers frequencies at 2473-2495 MHz.
In the initial tests, even in a spectrally congested indoor urban environment, usable connections were established at three to five times the distance of public Wi-Fi, said John Dooley, Jarvinian' s managing partner. "More critically, very high-speed connections were maintained much more uniformly and over significantly longer distances," he added.
In November 2012, Globalstar's TLPS was proposed to the FCC as a new 802.11-based service that enables a privately managed extension to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band using adjacent licensed spectrum to support mobile broadband applications. The company envisions offering TLPS as part of a managed services offering, coordinated with its satellite services and using customized carrier-grade access points to provide Wi-Fi offload capacity.
Globalstar is licensed to provide mobile satellite service in the Big LEO band at 1610-1618.725 MHz (the Lower Big LEO band) for uplink operations and 2483.5-2500 MHz (the Upper Big LEO band) for downlink operations. The TLPS network would operate in the company's upper 2.4 GHz band and also employ the adjacent unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) spectrum used for Wi-Fi at 2473-2483.5 MHz.
For more:
- see this release and this release
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