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Nextlink Wireless is a sister company to XO Communications, focusing on last-mile broadband wireless access using LMDS spectrum licenses in the top 75 U.S. markets. As a carrier’s carrier, Nextlink sells to both wireless and wireline operators as well as large entities such as the federal government. John Grady, director of marketing for Nextlink, spoke to Editor-at-Large Carol Wilson about the role his firm can play in business continuity planning.

On the role of broadband wireless in business continuity: Does wireless factor into our customers’ plans for business continuity? Absolutely. For one thing, we are providing a lot of route diversity--getting away from having to depend on the fiber into a building, in case that fiber is cut. In the event of a Katrina-like disaster, the idea that you have one end of your infrastructure tethered to radio on a mast and the far end is miles away--in a place like New Orleans, it could be five miles away. That gets you pretty far away from where a lot of the bad stuff was happening, and you don’t have to depend on terrestrial wire infrastructure.

On the role of federal regulations in disaster recovery planning: What’s driving the thinking today is not only just good network planning on the part of customers and industries but also the fact the federal government issued guidelines in the form of a memorandum from the Office of Personnel Management to all of the [federal] agency CIOs [saying] you have to insure you have agency-wide plans to support business continuity for your specific agency, and that has to incorporate physically diverse network facilities. One of the ways it is manifesting itself in the federal government--and that is beginning to have spillover effect--is in the soon-to-be-issued networks bid to replace FTS 2000. There are specific requirements for fixed wireless services. As part of the bid, [service providers] were asked if they can provide fixed wireless services.

On network diversity: It’s pretty hard to create complete and utter network diversity. The intent of the government regulation is the notion that you have physical last-mile redundancy so if the fiber gets cut, there is another way for that agency’s building location to stay online. If there’s a humongous electro-magnetic blast--anything electro mechanic gets toasted. But in the course of a normal natural disaster or something more premeditated, the building isn’t completely cut off from rest of the network. We do connect into the wired network, but that happens at a point in the network where the fiber is deployed as a ring and there are other plans for redundancy.

On the survivability of broadband wireless: It’s hard to say whether a broadband wireless network would have survived something as horrible as 9/11. The actual event somewhat dictates that. But if you have a radio on one building and a radio that is miles away on another building providing a connection--you don’t have wired infrastructure that is in harm’s way other than what’s inside the building. In the case of 9/11, massive towers were falling into the infrastructure where fiber exists. A radio on a mast that is set up to withstand forces such as wind could survive, and you don’t have physical infrastructure at risk. That’s the beauty of wireless--a lot of people forget this, but Katrina actually did come across Florida before it hit New Orleans. We had links up and working in Florida as it traversed Miami and Tampa. Our engineers did a study on three of the links. During the worst parts of the storm, our network availability exceeded our 99.95 SLA standard. One link was 99.997, one was four nines and the third one was 99.995. That’s a good example of survivability because one of the primary impacts to our service is very heavy rain. And Katrina in Miami packed a real punch. Miami was under curfew for a full day and a half following the storm. The city was flooded--the power was out, and we reverted to generators.

On long-term business continuity: We provide a standard backup of eight hours, but down in Florida, we’ve engineered generators to operate for eight hours. The big issue then is getting fuel to the generators. The challenge in Miami was that there was a curfew. We were able to sustain service through the worst of the physical hurricane. The challenges were imposed by post-hurricane conditions. We had to get fuel to that building.

On marketing business continuity: We are marketing to our business continuity advantage--customers are seeing advantages to having a diverse broadband wireless connection. We are absolutely beginning to refocus marketing around that. There is concern--that is true nationwide but from differing perspectives. The areas on the coasts where you have potential for natural disasters raise the profile far more. In the areas that are more interior to the country, where you are not necessarily subject to the ravages of a hurricane, the concerns are more industry specific--the finance industry and governments are the most concerned and the driver or motivation to look for solutions is driven not as heavily by the potential impact of a major weather event.

On planning for disasters: There are a lot of disasters that you don’t expect and can’t plan for. In the Baltimore area, a train derailed in a tunnel leaving the Baltimore train station, and it caught fire. The fire melted the wired infrastructure that was fiber and took down a series of fiber optic runs. That’s not something you expect to happen. But one of the challenges with wired infrastructure in major urban area is that you have to leverage underground facilities--sewers, water viaducts, train tunnels. You have other stuff going on. By also having a broadband wireless network, you are not exposing the network continuity to whims of the water company or weakness of the walls in the Chicago river [which flooded Chicago’s underground tunnels in the 1990s, knocking out many telecom services].