Broadband wireless technology employment in Canada

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. Canada has been aggressive in allocating frequency bands throughout the spectrum, from 2.5 GHz to 40 GHz, for the provision of terrestrial, wireless, broadband broadcasting and telecommunications services for both urban and rural applications-to compete with the conventional telephone, cable television and satellite infrastructures. This article overviews the technology and applications associated with a portfolio of some eight different bands allocated for various services, presenting the relative performance and economics of the spectrum alternatives and underlining the technical constraints associated with the higher frequency alternatives. The focus on provision of broadband services, employment of compression techniques for video transmission is outlined-with service capacities compared between the low and high frequency ends of the spectrum. Particular attention is focused on the new Local Multipoint Communications Service alternatives, with the equipment development and economic challenges associated with LMCS being presented.