In the gritty world of building an actual network, problems come up that are rarely considered in the abstract universe of white papers and PowerPoint presentations. How are communications affected by trees and tall buildings? By mountains and lakes? How bulky and heavy is the base-station equipment? Can it be placed outdoors? What about "backhaul"—that is, how will you connect the base stations to the Internet?

Soma's base stations and CPEs communicate with each other using a customized version of a new cellular standard known as high-speed downlink packet access, or HSDPA, which in turn, is a variation of third-generation GSM (an abbreviation for Global System for Mobile, the world's most popular cellular protocol). Soma's version is supposed to travel through buildings, a feature the industry calls "non-line-of-sight," but in practice, some customers outside the official coverage area have had problems getting high data rates, even after placing the CPE next to a window. So Soma has created a weatherproof CPE that can be clamped to a windowsill or balcony. At each base station, the network is backhauled by fiber links, some directly and others via high-speed microwave relay.

Both Soma and Jaring are circumspect when it comes to answering questions about money, but base stations can cost $100 000 or more. (Jaring has spent about $5 million for its current network of 10 base stations.) The CPEs may run as much as $250 apiece. Those prices are expected to go down. In June, Soma worked out a deal with Sanyo Electric Co., of Moriguchi City, Japan, to have it make the equipment at both ends of the connection. Sanyo's new base station is half the size and weight of the old one. An outdoor version is in the works as well; today, the radio and the antenna components can brave Malaysia's annual monsoons, but the rack-mounted server and multiplexing components cannot.

Reducing costs is critical. As of November, after 11 months of operation but limited marketing, the service had only about 3500 subscribers, each of whom was paying $34 per month for 1-Mb/s service or $28 for half that speed. Telekom Malaysia offers DSL for as little as $22 per month. Jaring justifies its higher price by citing the low rates it charges for the voice telephony that comes with its broadband service. But VoIP is becoming increasingly common. If telephony is a killer revenue-raising app for broadband, it will probably remain so only for a few more years.

To blanket the 450-square-kilometer Klang Valley in which Kuala Lumpur sits, Jaring plans to install 18 more base stations; the company hopes to have them built by the end of March. The cost for the entire network, including all 28 base stations and their backhaul, construction, billing, and so on, will be about $25 million. For Jaring, that's a big investment. Once the company starts to recoup those expenses, it expects to wire—wirelessly, of course—five more cities in western Malaysia with a total of 40 to 50 more base stations. Up on the Jaring rooftop, I asked Ridzuan how quickly he could build them. "I can build out the network right away if given...." At this point his voice trailed off. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger against each other, in the international gesture for money.

A wireless alternative to DSL is here today. Whether it will come to your hometown soon is more a question for the accountants than for the engineers.

Wireless Broadband

GOAL: Develop a wireless equivalent to DSL (1 to 3 megabits per second) that can also carry high-quality telephone calls.

WHY IT'S A WINNER: It allows Internet service providers that don't have a network of their own to compete with incumbent carriers for broadband customers; it also serves households that cannot get DSL.

ORGANIZATIONS: Jaring, Soma Networks Inc.

CENTER OF ACTIVITY: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE ON THE PROJECT: Current Jaring staff.

BUDGET: US $25 million.