But more and more, for consumers to really get what the Web has to offer, they must have access to a broadband connection--usually either DSL or cable. Unfortunately, about half the households in the United States can't get either.

"For DSL, perhaps they are too far from the phone company central office, or their wires use old copper, or the line picks up interference from an old burglar alarm or a nearby digital loop carrier," says Eric Rasmussen, a consultant at TeleChoice Inc., a telecom market strategy consulting firm in Denver. "For cable modems, the network doesn't reach their house, or perhaps their municipality has not upgraded the lines for high-speed two-way service."

But now there's another alternative to the bandwidth bind: MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service), otherwise known as fixed wireless. A subscriber gets a diamond-shaped antenna that's smaller than a pizza box to mount on his roof, pointed at a transmission antenna as far as 35 miles away. The antennas connect to the user's computer and presto, he has broadband Internet access.

Today, Rasmussen figures that four million Americans have Internet access through cable modems and two million have DSL access. By the end of 2005, he expects those numbers to jump to 16 million and 14 million users respectively, while MMDS will have another three million to five million subscribers.

The two leaders in MMDS today are $17 billion Sprint Corp. and $37 billion WorldCom. In fact, the attempted Sprint-WorldCom merger in the first half of 2000 was partially an attempt to pool their MMDS broadcast licenses, says Robert Rosenberg, president of The Insight Research Corp., a telecom research and marketing firm in Parsippany, N.J.

Rosenberg estimates that WorldCom has purchased the MMDS licenses in 160 U.S. markets with 40 million households, while Sprint has bought licenses in 90 markets with 30 million households.

"MMDS is a way we can deliver service to the home without having to go through the local phone companies," says Russ Robinson, Sprint's senior director of communications.

About three decades ago, Robinson explains, the bandwidth now used by MMDS had been assigned to schools and non-profit organizations for educational broadcasting. Few had the money to do anything with it, and the groups ended up leasing the bandwidth to small firms that were setting up wireless versions of local cable TV systems. When national satellite TV came along, the small local firms could not compete. But some were able to demonstrate that the bandwidth could be used for Internet access, and the FCC agreed to reallocate the bandwidth for that purpose. That got the attention of Sprint and WorldCom, which bought the bankrupt firms and their licenses.

With MMDS, everyone in a neighborhood should be able to use the service without eating into each other's bandwidth because the carrier can "cellularize," Robinson says. Basically, the carrier can place more and more antennas on a tower until each antenna only serves a narrow slice of vertical and horizontal range. When a tower is filled, you can add another tower. Carriers typically lease space on existing cellular phone towers, thus minimizing startup costs.

With the Sprint system (called Sprint Broadband Direct), the users can expect an average throughput of 1,000kbps downstream and 256kbps upstream, roughly the same as DSL and cable modems. Prices are also comparable: Residential users pay between $40 and $50 per month. Weather and trees are rarely a problem, but the signal cannot go through buildings or hills.

"Line-of-sight" is MMDS's weak point, Robinson admits. In city centers with clusters of tall buildings, as few as 40% of potential subscribers might be in view of a tower, while the rate in the average town runs closer to 65% to 85%, he says.

Second-generation MMDS technology, which will reduce line-of-sight problems, is expected to be out by the end of 2001. That's why Sprint's not rushing to full deployment until it's available, Robinson says. In the meantime, Sprint plans to concentrate on implementing MMDS in Phoenix; Tucson, Ariz.; Detroit (for business users only); Colorado Springs, Colo.; San Jose, Calif.; San Francisco; Denver; Salt Lake City; Wichita, Kan.; Oklahoma City; Fresno, Calif.; Chicago; Houston and Melbourne, Fla.

Although the details are sketchy, WorldCom says it plans to roll out fixed wireless service in 30 U.S. cities by the end of 2001. Initial trials are under way in Jackson, Miss.; Baton Rouge, La.; Memphis, Tenn.; Dallas and Boston. However, unlike Sprint, WorldCom is not focusing on the residential market. It has announced that its initial market focus will be small-to medium-size businesses, apartment complexes and business parks.

Lamont Wood is a freelance writer in the computer and high-tech fields who lives in San Antonio.