It’s a form of wireless connectivity that matches or even exceeds wired speeds, yet it’s easier to deploy and often available under a single service contract, worldwide. Cutting the complexity of dealing with multiple agreements – and cutting the resource costs along with it. So if companies as diverse as energy farms, offshore shipping, and city-center retail are considering GWA, perhaps you should too.
In this article, we’ll look at the pros and cons of different connectivity options – with notes on how wireless access can be rolled out across your global organisation as it grows and evolves, and the benefits it can bring.
Global wireless versus the copper cage: a wireless access win
Plenty of businesses still connect via the “copper cage” – original telephone wiring, often decades old and designed for a completely different use case. Copper telephony’s 3Mhz basic capacity is good for a voice call – and not much else. (It’s down to basic physics: an old-style fixed phone wire carries its data as electrical current, and there’s only so many amps you can throw down a wisp of metal.)
While technologies like ISDN and ADSL have boosted its speeds time and again, electrical copper is now definitely at the end of its lifecycle. No growth enterprise dare depend on the old-style phone network, yet in many countries it’s the only wired choice.
That's where GWA comes in. In many countries with this older infrastructure – often large, developing places like Brazil and India – there’s another option: fast wireless at LTE/4G and 5G speeds, available from a variety of mobile networks. This is the infrastructure wireless broadband makes use of.
Wireless service providers like Blue Wireless hold business-level contracts “behind the scenes” in multiple countries (We cover over 80!) so you get a single global agreement, not the complexity of market-by-market paperwork. Speeds are invariably faster than any phone line connection – and getting faster all the time, as network coverage expands. (Thanks to wizardry like directional antennas, you don’t even need to be in a mobile phone coverage area to benefit.)
GWA and wired fibre-optic: going global with wireless access
The world’s business centres are increasingly wired by FTTH and FTTC – fibre to the home, fibre to the kerb, and (more and more) fibre into the actual router box, bringing connectivity at the speed of light to your enterprise. (The high capacity of optical fibre comes from the way it carries data – photons over glass, not electrons down a wire. Many different wavelengths of light can be carried on the same fibre, meaning you can pack a lot of data onto it.)
Speeds in the gigabit range make fibre optic a great choice – if it’s available in your locations. For a global organisation spanning many countries, the answer is certainly “No”. Even more so if your locations are in remote areas, like that forest mining operation or offshore aquaculture farm. Before you can get a fibre connection, fibre must be laid in the ground … and a rainforest is a difficult place to wire.
Fortunately, there’s another choice when it comes to photons: using the mobile networks for global wireless access. (The radio waves of a cellular signal are photons, too.) Even in remote locations, a well-positioned antenna can draw in a mobile signal from a distant coverage area, making use of agreements with one or more mobile operators. And with 4G established and 5G being rolled out, speeds are eye-popping: in the near future, it won’t be unusual to see 1GBps connectivity with wireless access.
And unlike fibre, this connectivity is here today. Blue Wireless deployments typically take less than seven days to set up, with 24hrs possible; many clients even self-install. So GWA can grow as fast as your bandwidth needs do.
Leased lines and the global wireless alternative
It’s common for large organisations to rent a “leased line” from a telco or Managed Services Provider, with guaranteed connectivity using older technologies like MPLS. It works – but it can be expensive, particularly in regions like the Middle East. And of course, you’ve got setup costs and timelines to consider … at every single location.
It’s another challenge global wireless access can solve. You’ve already seen how it offers global coverage (thanks to cellular networks) and high speeds (thanks to 4G and 5G) – but can it match those SLAs and bandwidth guarantees you’ll get with an MSP? Turns out that the answer’s clear: yes, it can.
Blue Wireless is a good example. By maintaining relationships with hundreds of cellular connectivity providers worldwide, we can guarantee service levels at the capacity you need – including failover assurance. (If one network suffers an outage, the connection can switch to an alternative provider in less than a second.) It’s a way of providing seamless business broadband in an uncertain world – with no increase in the complexity for you.
And the new kid on the block: satellite internet
Satellite networks like Starlink are innovative, growing fast, and – let’s face it – exciting. Starlink will eventually provide 76,000 gigabits of capacity with its thousands of suitcase-sized satellites, and other networks have similar plans. But guess what: it’s not an either/or decision.
Satellites are one reason we say “wireless”, not “mobile”. Terrestrial mobile networks are a large part of our connectivity at the moment, but we expect satellites to play a bigger and bigger role over the next decade. After all, whether your bandwidth comes from a nearby cell mast or a whizzy spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit, it’s still wireless!
Thus, we're including satellites in our mix, giving you the best technological solutions for global wireless access in the least complex way, with our Global Managed LEO service.
Wireless access offers great cost and convenience benefits … globally
To summarize; for many growth enterprises, wireless wins against every wired connectivity option. It covers more of the globe. It can be rolled out a lot faster. Its bandwidth speeds are comparable or superior. And all your locations can be covered under a single contract, reducing needless complexity everywhere.
But there’s one more reason to look into GWA from Blue Wireless: cost. You’ll find it’s the cheaper option almost everywhere, whether your workplace is a processing plant or the deck of a ship. And with custom options that tailor your connectivity to your precise needs, there’s no wasted resources in the mix, either.
GWA can answer enterprise-scale growth ambitions … everywhere
Of course, every business connectivity option has advantages and disadvantages. But in today’s world there’s a clear link between how fast a company can grow, and how much bandwidth it enjoys. So if enabling growth is among your business goals, Global Wireless Access should definitely be on your consideration list.
