Cellular telephone service provider Mobility Ltd. yesterday announced it will roll out fixed wireless technology to corporate customers based in Hamilton by the end of the month.

Mobility CEO Lloyd Fray said the company was launching the new service ? which is a broadband solution for transmitting data at what he said to be much faster speeds than was currently available from others in the local market ? to provide corporate clients with a redundancy system to complement existing systems.

In specific, access speeds were said to be comparable to frame relay and considerably faster than DSL with the broadband solution being offered at speeds up to ten times greater than the standard 128 kbps. In addition, Mobility said the service would be available with what was reported to be a lower investment in set-up and equipment costs.

The launch of the new service, by the sister company of BTC and Logic Communications, was said to be phase one of a two-part project.

Initially the company said it intended to put its focus on business clients in the city while phase two will see it offer the service, in 2004, to residential areas outside of Hamilton.

Speaking further on why Mobility was launching the new service, Mr. Fray said that it was not the company?s intent to ?eclipse existing service providers? but to provide a viable ?redundancy? alternative ? or way for companies to have a back-up system in place as they plan for and deal with potential business interruptions.

Although Mobility said it would work with all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Bermuda to provide access services over their fixed wireless network, Logic Communications would be the first to offer the service, with rates designed to be ?competitive?, although final pricing had not been finalised.

The fixed wireless service uses the so-called ?in line of sight? technology, with an antenna or subscriber model mounted at the client site which operates on a low power radio signal to transit to one of a number of Mobility cell sites based around Hamilton.

With Mobility?s plan to eventually offer the service Island-wide, Mr. Fray said: ?The advantages of fixed wireless service to Bermuda include the ability to connect customers in remote areas of the Island where it might be impossible to lay cable or fibre and... the set up time is usually within three business days.?