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.

Fixed Wireless for Point of Sale Authorizations

Just about everyone uses credit cards these days. That means the credit card authorization terminal is every bit as important as the cash register for today's retail businesses. What helps to make for a fast and pleasant transaction experience could be the means of connection. If you are still using a dial-up terminal that shares a phone line with your office telephone and FAX machine, the dirty looks from your customers as they stand there and wait is probably all the encouragement you need to be looking for an upgrade.

T1 lines have come down in price dramatically over the past few years and are the broadband connection of choice for many small to medium size businesses. They may still be a little pricey for many smaller retail operations that aren't heavy users of the line. But what else can you get? Dial-up Internet access is universally available but hideously slow. DSL is not always available, nor is Cable broadband. Satellite is a better option, but it requires some serious professional installation work. How about wireless?

There are WISP or Wireless Internet Service Providers, but coverage is pretty hit and miss. You need a direct line of sight to the nearest tower. What would be really nice is something like cell phone service that seems to be available just about everywhere. Even better, how about a business service that uses multiple cellular carriers to give you fast, reliable access in over 90% of the U.S.?

Accel Networks offers just such a service. What they've done is to combine broadband wireless data services from the four leading wireless companies serving the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Chances are that there is one or more cellular towers providing reliable data service to your location.

These wireless services offer 3.5G, 3G or 2.5G performance, depending on the carrier. A 3 or 3.5G data service gives you 768 kbps bandwidth with bursts up to 1.4 Mbps. Upload is 384 kbps with bursts to 512 kbps. This is very similar to DSL and satellite performance. If you are in a more sparsely populated area, you'll probably get 2.5G service which still gives you 120 to 140 kbps download and uploads. That's far superior to dial-up and without the wait for modem connections.

Accel Networks claims cashless transaction times of 2 to 4 seconds using their network. They have also been certified by VISA for meeting all the payment card industry (PCI) requirements for data security. They'll ship you the hardware in as little as 3 days and you can likely get it up and running yourself in under an hour.

The Accel Networks fixed wireless broadband service is useful for general retail, quick service restaurants, table service restaurants, banks, fuel tank monitoring, hospitality services, pipeline monitoring, convenience stores, retail petroleum and other applications. In fact, this service is also used by companies for network continuity in the event that their primary WAN services goes down.

Are you in need of better voice and data connections for your business? Find out how little it costs for reliable, professional grade telephone and broadband solutions right now.