Originally one of the four DTH providers, Alphastar now focuses on Internet and intranet broadband content origination, aggregation, multimedia data storage as well as streaming via combinations of fiber hub and satellite for distribution either live 24/7 or on demand. Since launching its Telecrossing high-speed Internet and intranet broadband network in August in parts of the US, the company is gearing up to bring the solution to Europe where the company believes its hybrid approach will be warmly welcomed by independent ISPs anxious to cut the tie that binds them to telcos. “The advantage of using fixed wireless for broadband is that it frees you (the provider) from reselling DSL services from carriers that have shown little interest in a fast rollout in the first place,” Telecrossing founder and president Mahmoud Wahba told MFM.

To go global Telecrossing plans to lease more satellite space and broaden its focus to include business as well as residential markets outside the US. “The partnership model with ISPs would either involve a fee arrangement or a revenue-sharing model,” “We’re looking for partners who can deliver (our service) to their customers. It’s their ability that will distinguish them and not their size. It’s the interest in delivering wireless broadband by and large that counts.” To date, Wahba said, he is in discussions with companies in Germany, France and the UK. “There’s no question about it -- you can expect to see Telecrossing in Europe in 2001.”

Because the company’s satellite-based service is two-way rather than one-way there is more bandwidth to the customer site and less of a danger that the company’s business model will flop as Motorola’s Iridium, Intel’s Pandesic and now Europe Online have. “Europe Online’s major problem was this it was one-way and so it had problems with latency and getting the subscriber to interact with the satellite,” Wahba said. “With our approach the subscriber is interacting with a wireless hub ... so you have the material (content) and the browsing and interactivity right away cutting the waiting time (for content) from a half a second to between 6 and 8 milliseconds.” Currently the company’s chief competitor is Direct PC, according to Whale. “But it’s only a one-way satellite broadband (provider) with a phone return path.”

In its home market Telecrossing targets residential broadband users as well as apartment complexes, hotels and resorts. It expects to have 200 hubs within the next 10 months, increasing the total to 800 a year after that. Each hub can handle 20,000 customers. The company’s “always-on” high-speed access, based in part on Cisco System’s wireless technology, is delivered in increments or fractions of 2 Mbps symmetrical or asymmetrical downloading and uploading, dedicated or shared access with available speed up to 44 Mbps. To help speed content delivery further the company plans to use caches in local markets.

The hybrid approach is best suited to independent companies who are strapped for cash and squeezed for time, Wahba said. “(DTH) networks are inflexible and expensive to deploy. With a hybrid architecture you can build as you go so the capital expenditure isn’t up front and you can rollout according to real demand and not on a speculation basis.” More important, Wahba estimates it takes between 3 to 5 hours to install a hub. “The equipment at the customer premises is also not such a hassle since it’s basically a small radio antenna at the site and a wireless PC or laptop modem the customer has to install. The use of satellite means we can multicast so we can offer the service to a lot of people ... and the combination with wireless means we’re where the market is.”

Looking ahead the focus is on forging strategic partnerships to offer mobile services via mobile devices, computing and entertainment devices. To do this the company is teaming up with companies to handle data, voice and video communications. As for content, Telecrossing has the domestic rights to most of American programming but on the look out for European partners with content to add to the package, Wahba said.

“Down the road it will be a bundle of the two services -- broadband content and high-speed Internet,” Wahba said. “We have no illusions that it will be (an) easy (task) since there is such heavy competition in both the satellite and wireless markets, but the wireless networks in Europe are going to have to start connecting and once you start connecting the points then satellite is the prefect technology for point-to-multipoint.” Telecrossing agrees with industry reports which estimate the market could rocket to $60 billion within the next five years.