February 9, 2004
Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nextel Communications Inc. (NXTL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , the No. 5 U.S. wireless telephone company, said on Friday it will test a wireless broadband service in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, market, one of the options it is considering for high-speed wireless Internet access.

Nextel said that participants in the test service will include employees from Nextel's business customers, including Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , Nortel Networks Corp. (NT.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) (NT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) .

The service, which uses Flarion Technologies' nonstandard Flash-OFDM technology, will start later in February and offer users secure, high-speed, Internet-Protocol-based access with the full mobility of wireless service.

Average download speeds will be up to 1.5 megabits per second with shorter, burst rates of up to 3.0 megabits per second, making it comparable to DSL and cable high-speed Internet service providers, Nextel said.

Story @ America's Network