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Wireless Broadband CPE Limitations

Wireless broadband is not yet ready for primetime and is still too expensive to be truly competitive against fixed and mobile technologies - that was the surprising message from a number of operator executives speaking at the IQPC Wireless Broadband Week conference in Singapore.

Leading the charge for the sceptics was Bharti Televentures CTO Jagbir Singh who said that wireless broadband had to meet the price points of DSL if it was to become a truly competitive platform.

"Current CPE prices are in the range of $150 to $300 and CPE with advanced features is even more expensive," Singh said. "How do I compete when an ADSL modem is just $20?" Singh said that the business market was the only viable target for wireless broadband at present, and that the platform needed to offer voice to become genuinely attractive. "Data only is a very tough business case," he warned.

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