By Dan Baldwin
When affordable cellular "aircards" first hit the market many years ago, many IT directors with low-speed bandwidth needs said, "Cool! Now I've got a nice easy alternative to DSL or a T-1 to back up my data network."
Within a year or so cellular aircards stuck into a wireless data router were the standard data backup for many wide area networks (WANs) across the country for those businesses that could get by with 400k download & 150k upload.
Now, fast forward a half-dozen years, and IT directors have migrated from the 400k/150k speeds of the "2G" cellular networks to the 3g/1.5g data speeds of today's 4G/LTE/WiMax cellular data networks from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
While the wireless data speeds have increased though many IT directors are still relying on aircards in wireless routers to backup their networks.
Are Aircards Enough to Power a Business Grade Data Network?
I decided to post the question to Mark Gianinni, CEO of Accel Networks, a business grade wireless data integration company that specializes in creating wireless data networks for multi-location companies across the company.
Click the audio player below to listen to the interview. Click here to download an MP3 recording of the podcast. Scroll lower to read the transcript.
Dan Baldwin: Hello. This is Dan Baldwin, and today we are speaking with Mark Gianinni, the CEO of Accel Networks, who is also the co-founder. Mark, thanks for being with us today.
Mark Gianinni: Well, I appreciate the opportunity, Dan.
DB: The subject of our Podcast is: Are Aircards Enough? What constitutes a proper wireless LAN for business grade use. Mark, go ahead and start us off by answering this question.
Question #1: Can you give us the history of the business wireless LANs?
MG: Sure. Our historical perspective of business wireless LANs really began in the 2005-2006 time frame when we were developing our business plan, developing our business case, and developing our network platform.
It was in the third quarter of 2006 when we first deployed our first commercial customer. It was a chain, a quick-service restaurant chain, and at the time the prevailing technology was still 2G.
So data rates peaked out at about 100 kilobits/second, and latency was rather high, 500 - 600 milliseconds, and what that meant was that at the time cellular data was really appropriate for very thin route-type of applications like credit card authorizations or telemetry monitoring applications.
In 2007, the transition from 2G to 3G began, and it was at that point in our minds where cellular data really became cellular broadband.
It was also at the time when we first started testing applications, thicker route applications, heavier data intensive applications over 3G that we realized that we were going to have to substantially upgrade the quality of the RF link.
Otherwise, customers would not be able to enjoy the benefits of a 3G. And it was then in 2007 when we launched a development effort to design and implement our first generation proprietary indoor cellular broadband antennas.
2:40 The combination of 3G and our ability to fully optimize an RF link between the tower and the customer endpoint really launched our business, and we grew very rapidly from 2007 through today.
DB: Can you tell us what are the businesses that most often use wireless LANs, and can you tell us or describe some of these thicker applications that you hinted at?
MG: Sure. If you look across our install base, which now entails all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, for the most part we have just about every industry represented from retail, through energy, through healthcare.
I would say that today we have a heavy concentration in general retail, casual dining, quick service restaurants and retail petroleum.
As I said, when we first began back in the 2G days , it was essentially just point of sale authorization. Today, our customers, which are for the most part large enterprise companies with large distributed networks, view our service in two ways.
We have a primary service, which essentially means that the customer is depending upon that cellular broadband connection to drive their entire in-store operation, all the applications which can run the gamut obviously from authorization, but also includes inventory, data file transfers, security camera monitoring, alarm monitoring, just about every application that a retailer uses today to run their operation is running over that link.
4:54 The second type of service that we offer is a cellular broadband backup to a wired primary where the customer has DSL, or a T1 network, or MPLS network, and it really is the management of that network as if it was a primary that makes it so successful for us in that we constantly are monitoring the backup network.
In fact. we monitor at 15-minute intervals to ensure that the network is there when the customer's primary is down. They know with a high level of confidence that they are still going to nave network access.
DB: Question #3: Can you share with us the future of wireless LANs? And, when we are talking about Aircards, are Aircards still in use, and are they being phased out? Where are we looking to go in the future?
MG: Unfortunately, Aircards are still in use, and I say unfortunately because Aircards are really designed and intended for, I would call it consumer or residential-type of use. They were never really intended to be installed in a commercial enterprise environment where mission criticality is job 1.
The reason they are inadequate is because they are missing some key features. They often don't have dual RF ports, which is very critical in terms of establishing and maintaining a very robust RF link between the tower and the customer's endpoint.
6:53 Secondly, they have extremely limited remote access capabilities which means that the company that is providing these Aircard devices has virtually no ability to monitor and support that link once it is up and running.
So we a long time ago, almost from the very beginning, we eliminated Aircards as a supportive device that we use in the deployment of our customer network solutions.
In terms of where cellular broadband is going from a wide area network perspective, we have seen tremendous growth in the last 3 years, even through some very difficult economic times. It is for all intent and purposes in an Accel deployment, we can essentially deliver what amounts to a T1 circuit in terms of data rates.
In terms of latency, we can in the 90th percentile deliver a latency that is 200 seconds or below. This has captured the imagination of a lot of enterprise network customers, and when you look at the cost benefit ratio between cellular broadband and lets say frame relay or T1 circuit, it is from a perspective of data rates, they are very comparable to a T1, but it is anywhere from 30% to 50% of the cost of a T1, which has really driven adoption rates for us.
8:59 Obviously, with the advent now of 4G, all of those growth drivers, when added to the customer's migration to cloud-based services, is really going to I believe step up the growth and adoption rate at a faster pace than it is today.
DB: Question #4: Can you describe how Accel is positioned to help business end-users integrate the best wireless LAN solution, kind of compare and contrast to any competitors you have, and then clarify one more time do some of the Aircards people or businesses use a proprietary Accel end device?
MG: Let's start with the 2nd part of your question first. We eventually adopted fixed wireless modems. Essentially, we are an Airlink house where Airlink is manufactured by Sierra Wireless and is an enterprise class modem. There is nothing proprietary about the modem from our perspective, anybody can buy an Airlink.
What is proprietary, very proprietary, is Accel's family of proprietary indoor antennas, and the monitoring systems that go around it.
We essentially are the only cellular broadband carrier that I know of including the major carriers themselves like Sprint, Verizon and AT&T that offer SLA. We offer a service level agreement that covers availability, data rates and latency.
11:06 In addition to our proprietary antennae technology and monitoring systems, the other major contributing factor to our ability to offer an SLA is the fact that Accel is a multi-carrier service provider.
That is, we use Sprint, Verizon and AT&T interchangeably across all of our customer's sites, which enables us to start the deployment process with the best carrier coverage on a per-site basis, and that decision of which carrier and which type of antennas, and where to install it inside the store is made for every discrete location.
The one thing that everybody should bear in mind when it comes to RF, particularly wide area networks, is that no 2 sites are created equal. You have to essentially take on each site on its own terms and make the link work for the customer.
DB: This is Dan Baldwin. We've been talking with Accel Network CEO Mark Gianinni. Mark, we appreciate your time today.
Are there other things that we need to talk about with regard to our Aircards and what constitutes a proper wireless land for business grade use?
MG: Just that I think the overriding message here is that we understand that enterprise customers expect the same type of responsibilities in terms of who is going to deploy, support and monitor a network as they would from a land-based carrier. That has always been our approach.
And, it is very, very important to keep that in mind regardless of where in the supply or value chain someone may reside.
13:12 DB: I assume that our business end-users listening to this if they want to get more information, or a quote, or a proposal they simply contact their authorized Accel Networks representative?
MG: Yes. They can contact Accel directly. Our go-to-market motto is entirely channel and agent based, and we are very strong proponents of our agents, and our distribution channels, and if someone would get in touch with us to inquire about Accel services, we would certainly be more than happy to refer them to the appropriate channel or agent.
DB: This is Dan Baldwin. We have been talking to the CEO of Accel Networks and also the cofounder, Mark Gianinni. Mark, thanks for talking to us today.
MG: Thank you, Dan.
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