Fixed Wireless Moving To 4G

There are a couple of faces to fixed wireless broadband for business. First is the licensed microwave services that you’ll find downtown in major cities. The coverage is limited to a few thousand feet with strict line of sight requirements. Bandwidth is high, but availability is very limited.

The other approach is to piggy-back on the 3G cellular broadband services that already blanket the country. This approach offers lower bandwidth, similar to a T1 line, but is available just about anywhere you can get a cell phone signal. That has made it perfect for rural locations, temporary stores and small businesses that need a broadband connection fast.

Accel Networks has been a leader in 3G fixed wireless in the United States and Canada. Their winning approach has been in contracting with multiple wireless providers and creating a proprietary hardware solution that is plug-and-play for the user. Your equipment package comes pre-programmed for the optimal carrier signal available at your location. The Maestro antenna system ensures a solid RF link. All you need to do is connect to the serial or Ethernet connection and you are ready to go in as little as 3 days from order placement.

What do you get in the way of performance. You have a static or dynamic IP address on a PCI compliant private Layer 2 connection. Typical 3G data rates average 1 Mbps download by 512 Kbps upload. A service level agreement assures you of 99.9% availability. Coverage includes 99% of all retail locations in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

As good as 3G fixed wireless is, businesses are pressing for more bandwidth. Fixed wireless providers are following the cellular upgrade path from 3G to 4G as it is fielded. Accel Networks has launched their 4G service with a proprietary antenna and embedded modem technology. Speeds are expected to increase to 6 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload with under 100 mSec of latency.

How long until you can upgrade from 3G to 4G? The industry changeover is expected to be completed within the next two years. It will depend on where you are located as to how quickly you can install 4G fixed wireless broadband.

If you’ve been following the consumer smartphone upgrades from 3G to 4G, you know that there are a competing technologies. The ultimate is LTE (Long Term Evolution), a GSM technology that looks like it will become the universal standard. That includes a switchover for CDMA carriers like Verizon. In the mean time, carriers are performing intermediate upgrades to their existing networks to squeeze out a little more bandwidth. Why? It’s quite expensive to install new circuit cards in every cellular base station to change the technology of the signals being transmitted. Simple evolutionary upgrades often involve only a software upgrade to existing hardware. T-Mobile is taking this approach with an upgrade from HSPA to HSPA+ prior to full deployment of LTE.

The other limitation to higher speed cellular deployment is backhaul. This is the connection between the cell tower and the centralized switching equipment. Up till recently, T1 lines were used for cellular backhaul. They offer 1.5 Mbps in both upload and download directions and are both highly reliable and available anywhere twisted pair telephone wire exists. That’s just about everywhere, including out in the boonies. Bonding T1 lines can increase bandwidth by adding two, four, six or more T1 lines in parallel. That’s good to about 12 Mbps. After that, you need either microwave backhaul or fiber optic connection.

Fiber optic is the way to go if at all possible. The bandwidth is nearly unlimited and you only pay for the construction costs once. The problem is that there are several hundred thousand cell towers sites that need to be upgraded to fiber. In remote locations, fiber is nowhere nearby and needs to be brought-in. Even in the cities, there is a cost and time involved to upgrade each cell. That, plus the cost of the hardware and labor for site just to switch to LTE limits how fast the carriers can move. Even so, cellular broadband is so lucrative that billion dollar investments will continue to flow until the job is completed.

Will fixed wireless work for your business situation? If so, prices are very attractive for both 3G and 4G fixes wireless broadband solutions. Check pricing and availability to see if you really need those landline connections after all.

Fixed Wireless For Rural Retail

Retail businesses in small towns and rural locations often find it difficult or expensive to get the broadband connectivity they need. Many go with two-way satellite or T1 lines to get the point of sale and Internet access they need. Others have discovered that 3G wireless gets them a reliable and secure connection for credit card verification at half the cost of a T1 line.

We’re all familiar with 3G as the cellular broadband service for smartphones. It is also used with USB aircards to get Internet access for laptop and notebook computers. There’s a less well known service that leverages the availability of 3G wireless signals with the robustness of high performance multi-carrier equipment and a secure VPN network. This is what you need for serious business applications.

Conventional cellular service is fine for mobile applications and has the low cost advantage for personal use. The Accel Networks fixed wireless solution adds performance reliability, coverage and security for installation in business locations. The idea behind fixed wireless is that you set it up once and forget it. It’s always on and connecting you to the data center. You can safely turn your back and forget about tweaking antennas or charging batteries. This network is managed to ensure that it is always up and running. Think of this solution as a replacement for T1 line service or a satellite dish on the roof.

Accel Networks has addressed the issue of poor rural broadband availability by leveraging the broadband signals that are available. You know that you can get cellular phone service just about anywhere. The only question is whether the carrier you are contracted with has coverage everywhere you want to go. Accel gets around the limitations of carrier coverage by contracting with multiple cellular carriers to provide coverage to over 90% of business locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. They have a proprietary provisioning system that determines which carrier has the most robust signal for your particular location. That data is used to configure a unique modem, router and antenna equipment package that is sent to you in a couple of weeks, although it is possible to get expedited delivery in as little as a few business days.

Once you get your wireless equipment bundle, you simply plug it in and you are up and running. No need to wait for a service technician to install an outdoor dish or roof antenna or go through a complex configuration setup. None of that is needed with the Accel Network system. You’ll be ready to go in 15 minutes after you open the shipping box. The rental of the equipment is also bundled with your bandwidth lease so that you pay by the month, without having to buy any hardware. Even at that, the cost of a bandwidth service that is competitive with many T1 installations is about half the price.

What kind of performance can you expect? You’ll get 3G data rates bursting to 1 Mbps download and 512 Kbps upload on a 99.9% available network. That’s more than adequate for most small retail applications. This connectivity is on a PCI compliant private layer 2 network that gives it a big advantage for meeting credit card verification requirements. Use it with a single card terminal or hook up all your electronic cash registers and get fast response times, especially compared to dial-up telephone line solutions.

Accel’s fixed wireless package is perfect for retail POS, security, inventory polling, tank monitoring and digital signage. Oil and gas companies have found it works great for remote site management. Other applications include lottery machine and ATM support. Specialty retail stores, convenience stores, grocery stores, automotive retailers, restaurants, payday loan stores, and car dealerships have all found that fixed wireless meets their needs.

Is your business located in a rural or out of the way location where business broadband is either hard to come by or expensive? If so, check out fixed wireless business broadband service as a high performance low cost bandwidth solution for your business location.

Broadband Access Wireless Internet Providers

When we think of wireless Internet, the first thing that comes to mind is WiFi hotspots or 3G & 4G cellular broadband. It’s a mobile Internet technology, right? It is, but did you know that there are also wireless Internet services that are appropriate for fixed business locations like offices and retail stores?

One of the lowest cost wireless broadband services uses the same towers and resources that deliver broadband to your cell phone. Only this wireless service offered by Accel Networks is designed for fixed locations. What Accel has done is contract with major wireless carriers to use their bandwidth. By combining the coverage maps of several carriers, Accel can deliver 3G data rates to most locations that need it. You get similar bandwidth to a T1 line for about half the price. Installation is a matter of days, not weeks or months. Service reliability is 99.9% per the service level agreement.

Who is this service right for? It’s perfect for convenience stores, gas stations and other retail locations that need PCI compliant connection to process credit cards. Traditionally, these stores have ordered DSL, Cable broadband or satellite. When you are not on the path for wireline connections this wireless service can give you the bandwidth you need. You can even order it for temporary holiday locations, conventions and conferences, and construction sites.

Cellular broadband isn’t appropriate for applications where you need large amounts of continuous uploading and downloading. But there are fixed wireless services that are designed for just that. These are dedicated connections using directional antennas on special licensed frequencies for this service. The provider installs a small equipment and antenna box on the outside of your building and runs an Ethernet connection inside for your router. Dedicated fixed wireless can give you DS3 levels of bandwidth (45 Mbps) and replace bonded T1 lines and even lower speed fiber optic connections. The one kicker is that you need to be located near the carriers transmitting location, which is almost always downtown in a major metropolitan area.

Satellite is a two-way wireless service that has been popular with businesses that don’t need high bandwidth levels but do need connectivity in locations that have little to no wireline service and perhaps even no cellular service. These satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, just like the ones that deliver satellite TV service. The difference is that they are providing business broadband service. Satellite has the advantage that you can get service just about anywhere in the US where you have clear view of the southern sky and some way to provide electrical power. It doesn’t even have to be from the grid. Solar and batteries will work just fine.

Satellite and 3G cellular services are bandwidth limited and tend to have caps on the amount of data you can upload or download in a given period of time. They tend to have higher latency than wireline services. Geosynchronous satellites, especially, are unsuitable for such applications as VoIP telephony. But many businesses don’t need a broadband telephone service or video conferencing. What they do need is access to the Internet for email, credit card verification, viewing Web sites, using search engines, reporting inventory and ordering supplies, etc. These activities don’t require massive amounts of capacity or very high speeds.

If you have a business application that needs broadband access to the Internet but haven’t been able to find reasonably priced wireline services that meet your need, get prices and availability on broadband access wireless Internet providers that serve your business location.

POS For Temporary Store Locations

One thing you see every holiday season is the emergence of “pop up stores.” These are temporary retail locations that take over unused floor or store space in malls and strip centers to offer seasonal merchandise. You’ll find them selling christmas decorations or gifts, Halloween costumes, calendars, and other items that only sell for a few weeks or months during the year. When the season is over, they shut down operations until the next year. While these stores are in operation, they need to have the same or even more efficient point of sales systems than regular stores.

Why is POS so important? Simply because the nature of a temporary store is that you have lots and lots of customer traffic in one big burst. Any slowdowns at the checkout lane will drive potential customers to get out of line and go somewhere else. These are sales that can’t be recouped. If you don’t grab them when they’re hot, you don’t get them at all.

Traditional telecom services are a problem for temporary operations of all types. The standard contract for a T1 line or other bandwidth solution is the 1 to 3 year contract. That’s fine for bricks and mortar operations that are a fixture in the community. They know they’ll need the service for at least that long. But what’s a pop-up operation to do? Pay for an entire year’s service even if you need it for only a few weeks to a few months?

Relax. You don’t need to resort to cash only sales or those credit card machines that mangle the cards. You can get highly reliable, fast and secure cashless transactions. What’s more, you can lease this wireless broadband capability on a month to month basis and be up and running in a matter of days. No professional installation is needed. The system comes ready to plug-in and use.

What sort of bandwidth solution is this? It’s a proprietary 3G wireless service from Accel Networks. What Accel has done is make arrangements with the 3G cellular service providers for coverage in the US and Canada. These cover over 90% of business locations, pretty much wherever you can get a strong cell signal. Accel provides you with a bundled proprietary hardware and access solution pre-configured for the best performance at a particular location. Support and monitoring is 24/7. Bandwidth bursts to over 1 Mbps download, considerably more than you’ll likely need for POS even during your busiest times. It’s all PCI compliant so you can accept major credit cards.

Temporary store locations are just one of the important uses for this wireless service. It also works perfectly to provide broadband Internet connectivity to construction trailers, special events, cleanup and rebuilding after natural disasters, or while waiting for permanent wireline services to be installed.

Many businesses use this service on a continuing basis. It takes the place of VSAT satellite terminals, hideously slow dial-up Internet access, and unavailable DSL or Cable broadband. The honest truth is that many smaller businesses don’t need more bandwidth or need to pay higher prices than with this near-universally available business wireless service. These include retail stores, gas stations, convenience stores, quick service restaurants and others.

Do you have a need for temporary or attractively priced wireless broadband service in your business or organization? Find out how little it costs and how fast you can get 3G wireless broadband service at your desired locations. You may wonder why you ever thought you needed a wire.

Fixed Wireless Broadband Includes Canada & Puerto Rico

We tend to think of broadband as a wireline service. T1 lines are popular for small to medium size businesses. Ethernet is rapidly gaining ground because it can offer a larger range of bandwidths and lower prices than conventional telco technologies. Many chain retail outlets depend on two-way satellite access. But there is another service that can offer reliable broadband service with little or no construction cost and low monthly rates. That’s fixed wireless broadband, now available for the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

A top provider of fixed wireless broadband solutions is Accel Networks. They offer service in all of the major 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G and 4G coverage areas. If that sounds a lot like cellular broadband, it is. But this goes way beyond consumer-grade cellular data service. What Accel has done is to aggregate the wireless data services of a number of cellular carriers to create a service footprint that is larger than any of them individually. It covers over 99% of all retail locations in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

What kind of speeds can you expect on this wireless broadband service? The 3G service area is the largest, with average download speeds of 768 Kbps and bursts up to 1.4 Mbps. Upload speeds average 384 Kbps with bursts to 512 Kbps. In lesser populated areas, 2.5G service offers speeds of 140 Kbps for both uploads and downloads.

Accel has the engineering expertise to identify the strongest network connection for your particular business location and then configure the equipment they send you so that it is ready to go. Since there are no wires, other than what you connect for your own network, you can be up and running in a a matter of days, not weeks or months. That can be critical for new location openings, temporary construction sites, special events, or when a natural disaster occurs.

What applications are right for fixed wireless 3G broadband? Point of sale is a natural. If you’ve been struggling with dial-up verifications, you’ll be amazed how fast your transactions take place on wireless. Cashless transactions are typically completed in 2 to 4 seconds. Best of all, they don’t tie up your phone line. This is a highly secure network, offering PCI/Visa compliance to protect your customer data.

Some users of Accel fixed wireless service include general retail locations, retail petroleum sales (gas stations), quick service and table service restaurants, banks, hospitality, convenience stores and monitoring for pipelines and fuel tanks. Any location that needs a broadband connection to conduct business or transmit data is a natural for 3G wireless.

Another perfect application for Accel wireless service is network continuity. With any wireline service, there is always the danger of what is called “backhoe fade.” That’s an industry term that basically means someone was digging and cut through the telecom cables. Some of those bundles contain dozens or hundreds of wires. A fiber optic break can require over a 100 fiber strands to be spliced. Once the outage has been identified and the required service personnel are on-site, it can still be hours, days or longer to get service restored. Meanwhile, all users unlucky enough to be on that cable go without service.

How long can your business go without data service before it starts to hurt? An hour’s loss of business might cost you more than fixed wireless service for a month. So even if you depend totally on your T1 line, DSL service, or fiber optic connection, having a 3G wireless backup makes a lot of sense. Since there are no wires, there are no wires to cut. Wireless uniquely offers the diversity of service to reliably back up wireline connections.

Could your business benefit from low cost wireless broadband with fast installation that you can do yourself? It’s cheaper than you think. Go ahead, check out Fixed Wireless Broadband services for your business location.

Merchant Account Credit Card Processing Made Easy

Credit card payment processing is essential to even the smallest businesses doing retail sales. You can make this easy or hard, so why not make it as painless as possible with support from one of the best credit card processing companies. Elite Processing Systems makes the complexity of electronic payments invisible, so you can focus on providing the goods and services that your customers want. They also go beyond the traditional credit card processing service to provide a complete suite of financial services for small businesses.

Somewhere along the line you may have heard of EPS or Elite Processing Systems. They’ve been in the business of providing merchants the capability of accepting credit, debit and EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) forms of payment for almost a decade. If you want to be able to accept credit card payments, your system needs to meet electronic security standards set by PCI or the Payment Card Industry. There’s really no need for you to become an expert in this field. EPS has already taken the necessary steps to ensure that all of their merchants are PCI Complaint. They’ll provide you with the right supplies, point of sale terminal equipment and support to ensure your success from the very start. You’ll have access to 24 hour U.S. based support, including technical support, at all times.

You know that not all of your customers have or want credit cards, even at this late date. Their comfort zone is writing checks to manage their money. That can present a serious risk to merchants who don’t have the ability to verify that the funds are really available. Elite Processing Systems works with Telecheck to let you accept checks and immediately verify funds electronically. Save yourself the anxiety of having to take those checks to the bank and wait for them to clear, only to find that there is a problem. Know immediately if that check is good or not.

Most credit card processing companies limit their services to point of sale payment solutions. Elite Processing Systems goes beyond that to support your business operations in other ways. For instance, they also offer a cost effect payroll processing system that keeps your payroll information confidential. Additional services include life insurance, health insurance, disability and simple IRA plans.

Elite also has a service available for cash advance funding. You know how tough it is to get a bank loan these days. Elite Processing Systems can set you up with Merchant Money, Ltd. cash advances based on your credit card processing future receivables. You get cash up front. Funds are taken back through your credit card sales in your merchant processing account. That helps you meet payroll, purchase inventory, pay taxes and fund your marketing campaigns without having to worry what mood the bankers are in this month.

Credit Card Processing by Elite Processing Systems a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Walnut Creek CA.