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Help for the Unwired: Broadband Beamed to You

If you're eager for a taste of high-speed Internet access, but don't live within reach of DSL or cable service, help may be on the way. Sprint recently introduced a wireless system that delivers broadband access at up to 256 kbps upstream and between 1 and 5 mbps downstream by bouncing signals between diamond-shaped antennas perched on users' rooftops and a larger antenna on a nearby mountain.

Called Sprint Broadband Direct, the service was in trials in the greater Phoenix area for more than a year before launching formally this spring. Home customers pay $40 a month and get a single IP address; business users pay $90 for five IP addresses and faster callbacks when they need tech support. Installation costs $299, with special price breaks to customers who sign long-term contracts. By year's end, Sprint plans to expand the service to 12 to 15 new markets, including San Francisco and Houston.

The service uses 13.5-inch-square rooftop antennas that connect to a coaxial cable the installers run through a wall (in a setup similar to cable TV installations) and then connect to a modem attached to the user's PC. Radio signals broadcast from the rooftop antenna can travel up to 35 miles, Sprint says. Receiving and broadcast antennas must stand in line of sight, so in areas with hills and tall buildings Sprint uses multiple transmitting towers. The system should appeal to anyone who can't get cable or DSL service, just as satellite TV dish antennas found early buyers in areas without cable.

Early customers in Phoenix are enthusiastic. J. R. Robertson, chief executive of Air Photo USA, says Sprint's service speeds up his company's Web sales of digitized aerial photographs. Shari Leyva, whose home-based business sells promotional products, appreciates how the system lets her place orders online without tying up her phone. "You're always online," she says. "There's no dial-in and no waiting. All you do is hit a button, and you're on the Web."