I just had an interesting meeting with a carrier in Germany. They specialize mainly in Business Services but also have a bit of consumer activity. As usual with alternative carriers they utilize a number of different networking and transport technologies. Currently in place is Fiber, copper (unbundled local loop) P-MP radio access and microwave antennas.
They were stating that if their current customer bandwidth growth rate keeps up they will need something more than microwave in a year or so. We joked a bit about ways to expand his spectrum in the microwave base stations but then he told me that they are looking at “Line of Sight Lasers”.
I was a bit shocked because in the mid-late 90’s there were a number of companies specializing in this technology and they seem to have faded away. There seem to have been issues with interference by fog, clouds, birds, etc. that made the use of these systems difficult, at best.
The LoS Lasers they are looking at are based on a new frequency and are more robust than the systems of the late 90’s. The new frequency is reported to be 60Ghz and offers a number of advantages.
At this point I don’t have all the details on advantages, or even a company that provides them but I will update when I have that information.
