 nature of the service being offered - in this case broadband wireless access. A brief description of the target market, and the specific needs of the market that the service will address, will provide an introduction to the marketing plan. Marketing Plan The marketing plan starts with competitor analysis and customer mapping. The competitor analysis will identify alternative broadband access options that are available in the target area, such as cable, xDSL or Chapter Thirteen competing wireless providers. Some specific aspects of the competition that will need to be assessed are; What types of services are being offered by competitors? What is the market perception of the quality of service provided? What is the range of available uplink and downlink data rates? What are the initial set-up and equipment charges made by different competitors? What are the typical subscriber charges, including variable rates based on time or usage? Are promotional rates or discounts being offered? Customer mapping establishes the density of potential subscribers in the target area of the network, including the mix of business and residential customers. This will also be an input to the initial technical planning to generate a picture of the physical network deployment required to reach the maximum number of potential subscribers. To turn the customer mapping into a subscriber forecast (Figure 13-9) it will be necessary to do some market research in order to estimate an uptake rate within the target customer base. An initial pricing assumption will be needed as input to this market research. This may be based on information from the competitor analysis or on the cost of similar services in other areas. A useful approach may be to Rapid uptake High latent demand No alternative Intermediate uptake Moderate competition Slow uptake Many alternative Competitive prices and services Years of operation Figure 13-9: Example of Uptake Curves for Various Assumptions Implementing Wireless MANs test the likely customer uptake against a range o