Fixed wireless internet startup WeLink participated in the Fierce Digital Divide Summit in December during a virtual fireside chat interview with CEO and co-founder Kevin Ross who delved into the service provider’s plans for expansion, efforts to bridge the connectivity gap, and more. The full video is available above.
A key takeaway was that WeLink wants to give consumers more choice in their broadband options.
“We are primarily focused on gigabit symmetrical activity with a target to the, what we think of as the suburban areas surrounding large metropolitan areas. We have an approach that uses a community-based architecture model that dramatically reduces the cost and allows us to offer gigabit service at much more competitive rates than some of our competition,” Ross told Fierce.
RELATED: WeLink turns up mmWave fixed wireless in new markets
WeLink uses unlicensed millimeter wave spectrum and Ross dug into how the provider overcomes propagation challenges typically associated with mmWave, like those seen in licensed deployments for cellular by major carriers for 5G.
Rather than using a hub and spoke model, WeLink solves for propagation with a mesh network architecture.
“Our sites are able to propagate signals and we have a lot of low-cost sites distributed throughout a neighborhood, which essentially allows us to overcome line-of-sight challenges that are imposed by trees and buildings and the like,” Ross said.
From a cost perspective, the company has also benefited from a large ecosystem of semiconductors, he added, built specifically for this 60 GHz unlicensed band and which help bring costs down significantly.
Check out the interview video above for more insights as Ross discusses: The company’s network architecture and use of fiber as an injection point, details on WeLink’s rates of $70-80 per month (the cost of which decreases to $60 over time with a loyalty discount); competition against gigabit cable; what’s changed in the last several years that makes what WeLink is doing possible versus other fixed wireless startups that have gone by the wayside; the company’s approach when it comes to affordable access versus reaching underserved communities to bridge the digital divide - and more.