High Speed Internet and Multimedia at Unbeatable Prices, and Coming Soon !

ATDI, the French specialist in radio network management techniques, has just obtained an experimental license from ART (the French Telecom Regulatory Authority) to test a new very high speed radio telecommunications technology specially adapted to the Internet and the broadcasting of multimedia programs.

Paris, January 9, 2001

ATDI has just received the authorization from ART (the French Telecom Regulatory Authority) to use a new radio frequency band (41 GHz) so that it can test the viability of commercially transmitting interactive TV and high speed Internet by radio wave.

Obtaining this license for a period of one year is proof of ATDI's acknowledged expertise in radio communications. It will allow ATDI to test the possibility of using this radio technology for broadcasting multimedia programs and for offering Internet access at speeds far higher than all of the technologies currently in service on cable or twisted pair, and all at an unbeatable price.

This radio technology does not require any complex infrastructure (users need only install a parabolic antenna oriented towards the telecom operator's transmitter) and holds a great deal of promise. The speeds announced for the 41 GHz band should achieve impressive performance levels: close to 4 Mbit/s per subscriber, thus enabling the technology to provide as yet little-developed multimedia services like interactive TV, high definition TV and on-request TV programming, not to mention the possibility of downloading video, music and games, playing interactive games, watching pay per view TV and of course having very high speed Internet connections for both home and professional users. There is strong market for these products but one which has never really taken off given the cost and lack of performance offered by current technologies.

As a reminder, A-DSL technology performance peaks at around 1 Mbit/s; X-DSL technology can reach speeds of 6 Mbit/s but only over very short distances (around 300 meters) and the local radio loop is hardly profitable for operators beyond 2 Mbit/s. Satellite transmission solutions, the only ones able to rival radio transmissions in the 41 GHz band, remain out of reach for most individual users given their extremely high cost.

As for the technology used by ATDI in the 41 GHz band, it will be based on the Digital Video Broadcasting standard (DVB). Consequently, it makes use of standard equipment, the cost of which will be significantly less than most current equipment. This solution could therefore turn out to be economically viable especially for covering the home market at a time when operators are failing to see their significant investments pay off and are moving away from this market.

"Through this technology, the aim is to provide very high speed services, something that the market is looking for more and more, while still basing the system on a very widely used transmission standard" says David Missud, ATDI's Managing Director. "Our application for a license, which brings together a number of operators including Landtel, means we will be able to conceive new services and analyze their viability. Our aim is to gain expertise in this technology and build up various partnerships to subsequently provide operators with a turnkey service so that they in turn can offer their subscribers unique and extremely competitive very high speed telecommunications services".

Within approximately two years, ART expects to issue a call for tenders to telecom operators with the aim of allocating operating licenses for radio networks transmitting on this frequency band.