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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 wireless local 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. Our application for a license, which brings together a number of operators, 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. As Singapore has already allocated these licences the United Kingdom should follow suit shortly.

ATDI has just signed a contract to supply ICS Telecom licenses to the STC (State Telecommunications Commission), the national regulatory body in Bulgaria. The tool will be used to manage the analog and digital broadcast spectrum as well as for telecommunications applications, such as TETRA and PMR initially. This contract was concluded in association with TELCOM Engineering, a Bulgarian company that will assist with implementing the tool at the regulatory body. ATDI recently completed the production of High Resolution databases for Leon, Puebla, and Toluca, Mexico. These cities, plus 6 more that are pending, will be added to 3 other Mexican cities available off the shelf: Monterey, Mexico City, and Guadalajara.   Norigen Communications, Inc. has begun using ICS Telecom as their Radio Planning Tool. Norigen is a broadband wireless operator in the 39GHz band. They are using ICS Telecom for planning TDD (Time Division Duplexing) technology in Canada, beginning in Vancouver. ATDI has secured access to 10,000 Square Kilometers of recent High Resolution data covering most of Canada’s cities. Two projects are currently ongoing for Database Connection with ICS Telecom. The first has been completed, and connects ICS Telecom to a company-wide Oracle database, through the ODBC access. The second project implements a 2 way mechanism (read/write) in order to include ICS Telecom in their engineering sequence.