Crowley Completed the Construction of an LMDS Network

Crowley Data Poland has completed the deployment of a broadband radio-access network in LMDS technology using the 28 MHz frequency. The project is worth of PLN 11,3m; the company received a 40% of this sum as the EU funding. The investment was carried out from September, 2008 to November and 2010 helped to extend an existing Crowley Data Poland network both in terms of coverage and the capacity.

The major project objective was to build an infrastructure necessary to offer high-speed data transmission services to those customers who found a traditional cable technology unprofitable for using access services. The LMDS technology (Local Multipoint Distribution Services) is based on the radio transmission with a 28MHz channel bandwidth and a 64 modulation automatically adjustable to the weather conditions. It allows for a high-speed data transmission with a capacity up to 92Mb/s and the quality comparable with the optical fiber transmission.

„A newly completed radio-access network has considerably contributed to increasing the number of our customers who, so far, have not fallen for our service offer for reasons related to either location or costs.” - said Dariusz Terlecki, a Board Member of Crowley Data Poland. „Moreover, due to special tools we can strengthen competitiveness of our company. Under the LMDS network, we launched an internet platform for communicating with customers and offering to the users a high independence of service in terms of access to ongoing information on the billing as well as service configuration” - he added.

Implementing the network was a big challenge for Crowley Data Poland. The largest Polish cities were selected for this purpose, as CDP has a license for 28MHz radio channels operating in the 26 GHz bandwidth. The logistic and installation works profited from Crowley’s past experience gathered in course works on installation tests conducted in cooperation with Hughes – a leading international provider of broadband satellite services, as well as, network products and solutions. Within past two years, a 108 sectors of a 10 Gb/s capacity and 648 subscriber terminals were activated.

„One major problem related to deploying radio-access (including LMDS) networks is a careful preparation of the a radio planning i.e. the allocation of radio channels to base station sectors in radio network nodes. The objective of this process is to minimize the potential for interference in the radio network, which gives the base for a high quality of provided services” - said Zdzisław Wiśniewski of CDP, the Technical Director. „Even the best technology will not work properly if it is not backed up with the radio planning”” – he added. The company collaborated with the Institute of Telecommunications to ensure the correct execution of this project. As a result, a programming tool was created to support the process of radio network planning in course of the project implementation. However, even the most careful radio planning cannot prevent unpredictable events that might have occurred in the network, especially that ours is the largest LMDS network in Poland. For that reason, prior to the actual project execution, mock-up tests were carried out which ensured a practically seamless project completion.

Due to implementing a new infrastructure, Crowley Data Poland extended their range of potential customers by the sector of largest enterprises. At the same time, the churn ratio (the number of customers canceling services) decreased. The Company intends to continue applying the radio solutions upon deploying the network. In the near future, the company considers to install the LMDS system operating in the 10,5 GHz bandwidth. „We are getting ready to implement FTTx optical fiber technologies but we still plan to use radio-access network. Its major advantages are flexibility and a fast deployment rate.” - summed up Rafał Pietrzak of CDP, the COO and Member of the Board.