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NYC Wireless Blows


November 3, 2014 | Amy K. Nelson

For as fast-paced and progressive as New York City is, the wireless broadband there blows. But, according to a report by Crains New York, the lack of technology is set to get a major upgrade.

Roughly 90% of commercial buildings in the city are not wired with business-class broadband, which is a faster broadband service provided to businesses. Because most of that fiber is laid underground in the city, it requires the tearing up of roads and streets that isn’t scaled to the demand. There is a solution, however, in fixed wireless broadband, which connects the fiber atop a radio antenna, essentially putting it in the sky as opposed to underground.

According to Crain’s:

A fixed wireless system starts with a fiber-optic cable connection to a rooftop radio antenna, which beams gigabit-speed radio waves to and from a customer’s rooftop antenna up to a mile away. The radio waves are then “handed off” from the rooftop, via fiber Ethernet, to customers inside the building.

The site reports that the city is preparing to utilize this technology beginning in Brooklyn and Queens. The best news? Landlords are inking deals with tech firms who specialize in fixed wireless, looking to install the technology and move old, awful, horrible, anti-christ companies like Time Warner out.

“We think it’ll make a big difference in terms of our ability to attract the kind of tenants we want,” said Seble Tareke Williams, who works for a management company that is building out a six-story 90,000 square foot warehouse in Astoria.

That’s great news for anyone who has ever been a Time Warner customer.

(Image: Digital Spyders)