Solace Power says operators close to LiFi FWA deployment

Li-Fi and wireless power can "unlock" hard to reach properties for FWA, remodelling the operator business case, and could have commercial deployments next year, says proponent.

Wireless power company Solace Power said that it could see deployments next year of its wireless power and LiFi-based FWA CPE equipment.

Solace Power has teamed up with PureLi-Fi (and un-named WiFi/radio providers) to design a window-mounted CPE for Fixed Wireless Access connectivity. The initial product was launched earlier in 2024 and is currently in collaboration and trial agreements with network operators, Daan Goosens, VP Sales & Marketing, told TMN. A new, smaller and lighter version of the product will be launched in October.

Solace Power and partners have designed a family of FWA gateways and routers that attach to either side of a property window. On the outside of the window is a receiver unit that connects to the FWA base station. On the inside of the window is a user’s router that distributes signal indoors. The outdoor unit is powered wirelessly via a connection to the indoor unit, which is mains powered. The two units carry a data connection through the glass, with that connectivity either being a WiFi link or, in the case of a new unit, Li-Fi.

The LiFi variant currently supports 1Gbps throughput, with 2.5Gbps on the roadmap. WiFi versions can deliver about 600Mbps.

Solace Power says having two units that can stick to either side of a window can improve the 5G FWA business model for service providers. That’s because users can get the benefit of an outdoor gateway (better reception and faster connectivity) without the need for the service provider to send out a field team to install the product, drill holes in walls and run cable.

Having the service quality of an outdoor box at the economic cost of an indoor box can “unlock” locations that were previously uneconomical for a service provider to address, Solace told TMN. It claims that in 15% of locations that otherwise struggle for coverage, just moving a box from indoors to outdoors “unlocks”  FWA for the operator.

Goosens said, “Typically operators will start with indoor CPE because it’s easy to ship a box to a customer, they plug it in and you have service. The problem is that indoors, the signal gets worse. The operator then starts to run out of network capacity, so it moves to outdoor CPE – which is typically a professional instal to run cable inside and drill a hole in  the wall etc.

“Our technology is the best of both. It’s self-installable outdoor CPE.”

Solace says that the wireless power element is not tricky to use, and does not require precise alignment between the indoor and outdoor units, which are stuck, limpet-style, onto the glass. It has also worked to make sure that its wireless power connectivity will work through any sort of glass or treated glass, from a single SKU. The company already has other applications in the aeronautical and automotive industries.

LiFi, or visible light communication, was standardised as an optical variant of IEEE standards in 2023. PureLiFi is one of a few companies that are commercialising the technology, and was one of the earliest to display working demonstrations.