With our announcement today of the SkyConnector Mini, SkyPilot solves one of the biggest concerns for any wireless ISP – per-subscriber cost.
The most consistent feedback we get from our WISP customers relates to the cost of customer premise equipment (CPE). This is not too surprising, since every ISP – from DSL to cable to wireless – needs to keep per-subscriber costs low in order for their business model to work. Some simple math shows that decreasing per-subscriber costs reduces the time to profitability, which substantially improves the overall financial model.
Over the past few years, we’ve engineered the SkyConnector – our broadband wireless CPE – to keep costs down while still maintaining a focus on providing broadband speeds even over long-range wireless links. Today, we announced the SkyConnector Mini to substantially lower per-subscriber costs while still maintaining the commitment to long-range and high-capacity wireless.
The SkyConnector Mini essentially cuts the cost of our “classic” SkyConnector by 50%; however, it still provides the same fundamental features and capabilities. It has a 14 dBi antenna and still provide high-power transmissions at 24 dBm. We’ve provided a side-by-side comparison of the SkyConnector Mini with the SkyConnector Classic to show how similar the two products from a feature perspective, but the Mini will be able to get under US$200 in our volume packs. To our current WISP customers – and hopefully to a bunch of WISP who are not yet customers – this price point represents a milestone.
There is a lot of information relating to the Mini on our website. Please browse through this information and let us know if there is any additional information you’d like.
Tags: Broadband wireless CPE, fixed broadband wireless, unlicensed broadband wireless
[...] SkyPilot has released the SkyConnector Mini, a new generation Broadband Wireless Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) for long-range connectivity to broadband wireless subscribers. The SkyConnector Mini costs 50% less than the current generation of SkyConnector while maintaining advanced wireless features including a high-gain antenna, high-power radio, OFDM modulation, AES encryption, and QoS capabilities. [...]