Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) News

A Lawyer, an Engineer, and a Writer Conspired...

... conspired to write a really excellent article in IEEE Spectrum Online - When Spectrum Auctions Fail.

Not coincidentally, the lawyer, the engineer, and the writer are actually the same person, Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth PLC.

In the article, Lazarus takes great pains to clearly explain (great writing!) the history (good legal research!), and technology (great engineering background!), of fixed microwave links, and wraps the article up neatly, with all the history and technology, why it simply doesn't make sense to auction off entire bands that are really only suitable (at the moment) for fixed links, to a single entity.

I rarely say this here given how laughably bad most writing of late has been about wireless technology, especially writing about fixed wireless technology and legalities (and lack of historical context)... but...

I highly recommend Lazarus' article. Lazarus does an excellent job, including a very realistic treatement of the utility and usability of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz license-exempt bands in fixed wireless usage (this is rarely handled well, accurately, or fairly). And Lazarus gets it exactly right (this is really, really rare) in discussing the little-known 60 GHz band:

Radio waves around 60 GHz suffer an even greater problem: They are absorbed by oxygen molecules, and to a 60-GHz signal, clear air will look like dense fog. But systems in this band are still used, for instance, to connect nearby buildings on a single campus. Here, the atmospheric attenuation can be considered a feature rather than a bug, because it allows the same frequency to be employed a short distance away without risking interference.

One trivial point off for Lazarus not pointing out that the wavelength of a 60 GHz signal is about the size of the cross-section of a pencil, and therefore doubly hard to interfere with (or intercept). One other trivial point off for not discussing the (now) comedic (probably not so funny to investors) antics of the failed predecessor companies of FiberTower (which Lazarus mentions briefly). Two such failed companies that come readily (and laughably, painfully) to mind from those days are Teligent and WinStar. But even online articles have length limits, so perhaps not mentioning these two was the fault of an editor :-)

Steve Stroh

Amateur Radio Works, Mobile Telephones Don't At Boston Marathon Bombing

Via David Farber's IP list, and Dewayne Hendricks' Dewayne-Net list, I learned of a good article in The Atlantic Cities by Anhony Townsend - The Shame of Boston's Wireless Woes that explains how Boston's mobile telephone networks collapsed in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, and some of the why. Townsend did a credible job in this piece.

What Townsend only touched on in the article is that it's not just the mobile telephone networks access capacity that fails in a disaster, it's that the basic architecture of circuit-switched telephony fails in a disaster. Even if you are in the coverage of a cell that has capacity available, you can't make a call in a disaster because the switch that connects your call to the person you're calling doesn't have any available circuits. So you get the hated busy signal. The switching fabric is a shared investment amongst all telephony providers, and there's no incentive to invest in switching capacity beyond what is normal load for an average day... and the occasional sporting event or concert which is handled by bringing in "Cells On Wheels". Of course, sporting events and concerts are known months in advance and can therefore be planned for.

As an Amateur Radio operator, this jumped out at me from Townsend's article: Lacking a redundant cellular system, Americans will continue to resort to the century-old technology of amateur radio for lifeline communications during and after large disasters. In Boston, this technology is still widely used during the marathon because of past experience with cellular traffic jams.

The Boston Marathon is well-known in US Amateur Radio for making very effective use of Amateur Radio operators for effective communications over the entire course. Amateur Radio operator Tim Carter, W3ATB wrote a great story about what it was like to be one of those Amateur Radio operators on the Boston Marathon course. In Boston Marathon 2013 – Bombs, Carnage and Amateur Radio Operators.

Many Amateur Radio operators obtain their Amateur Radio license soley so they can communicate effectively in disasters, either personally, or to help in the aftermath. Being better prepared to help in an disaster was on my mind on Tuesday as my favorite Amateur Radio Club - MicroHAMS, debated how to particpate in Field Day 2013, a nationwide distaster drill, this year on June 22-23. We decided to staff up a local Emergency Operations Center and operate exclusively data modes.

If you're interested in learning more about Amateur Radio, the ARRL (the US National Association for Amateur Radio) website is a good place to start.

Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Dish Networks Really Wants To Buy Sprint

It's not googleable (shame on WISPA for poor coverage of their own event) but if you listened carefully during Charlie Ergen's talk at WISPAPALOOZA 2011, it was obvious that Dish Networks was going to be getting into some kind of Broadband Internet Access. Charlie was surprisingly open that Dish was seeing the effect of "cord cutting" and inroads of Netflix, and Charlie invited the attendees to "talk to us about what we could do together".

Flash forward a year or so - December 2012, and Dish gets its hands on some spectrum. So, now that they have some spectrum, they're a now a credible player in Broadband Wireless Internet Access... right? Well, um, no. The pro's snickered, knowing it's HARD to build terrestrial wireless infrastructure on a national scale. Oh, and it's expen$ive! Sure, you can just pull out the money gun and point it at the largest tower companies and fire away... but that gets you the SITES. That's all. Then there's all of the backhaul. And the equipment choice(s). And the Installation. And the Maintenance. And the Network Operations Center. And the Security. And.. And... And...

In short, it's really, REALLY different than the "simple"* bent pipe model of 99.9% of what Dish does. Dish transmits up to the satellites, customers passively receive from the satellites. Scaling from 1 to infinite is pretty possible (assuming you can handle getting and keeping the installers, maintaining minimal installation standards (hint - running satellite coax through a rain gutter is a bad idea - true story from my Father-In-Law's latest Dish installation), and of course the billing issues (always a challenge given the recent cord cutting frenzy causing a lot of churn).

So today's announcement of Dish really wanting to buy Sprint makes total sense. In buying Sprint, Dish buys an existing terrestrial Broadband Wireless (Internet Access) infrastructure. They also buy expertise in managing a terrestrial infrastructure. They even buy a footprint of retail stores where they can co-sell wireless phones and satellite television service. And theoretically, they can blend television via satellite and television via Broadband Internet.

Softbank is good, but Charlie Ergen is meaner, hungrier, and a better dealmaker. I'm betting on Charlie to win in the end.

* Yeah, I know. Not really simple at all. But simpler than trying to build and operate a national footprint terrestrial wireless network.

 

By Steve Stroh

Personal note - it's good to be back. I've missed all of you.

Sizing Up The Horse After A Fall - Working Towards a New Newsletter

A friend once told me how it was to fall off a horse. My friend was badly hurt, (and it could have been much worse), but bravely and wisely, my friend didn't blame the horse and would happily ride that same horse again... as soon as the injuries healed. I imagine that my friend will be a bit wary from now on, thinking (at least in the background) "well, I'm not going to make that mistake again" (the sequence of events that led up to the fall).

I've only ridden a horse once, and that was one of the wilder experiences of my life. I was a teenager, trying to act cool around my brothers and the pretty girls we were vacationing with (despite this being my very first time on a horse). So, I boldly (foolishly) said "Giddyap!". And, of course, the well-trained horse complied (!!!) and took off like a roller coaster on four legs. I could barely catch my breath, let alone hold on... I was happy just to survive the experience. (No, I didn't impress the pretty girls. Or my brothers.)

For some time I've been working to return to writing about Broadband Wireless Internet Access, and the experience kind of feels like my friend feels now, post-fall, injuries healed, and a bit wiser. In the previous incantation of my writing and previous newsletter, I (no longer) blame the horse (my readers and the wireless industry). I'm willing to ride that same horse again (writing a subscription-based newsletter about Broadband Wireless Internet Access). And, I'll be a bit wary from now on, constantly thinking in the background "I won't make that mistake again" (fundamental business model mistakes... perhaps more accurately, complete lack of a viable business model).

If you're reading this blog, after so many months of no new content, you're a real fan. So I'd like to make you an offer - be a beta tester for Broadband Wireless Internet Access News - my forthcoming subscription-based email newsletter on... you guessed it... Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA). To find out more, just email me (link now corrected). I'll try to acknowledge all applications, but you may not hear back from me immediately (I still have a day job). I won't necessarily accept every person who applies, and I'll cut it off as soon as I feel I have enough beta testers. It will help your chances of being accepted as a beta tester if you tell me a little bit about yourself in the email and why you're interested in Broadband Wireless Internet Access News. It will especially help if you remind me that we've met and talked substantively about BWIA at some point in the past.

For now, this offer will only appear on my blog. If it goes to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and (soon) Google+, I expect I'll be innundated.

There are some of you out there - you know who you are (RH, JS, MS, JS, PL, LG, and many more) who are already on the list :-).

Thanks,

Steve

 

Two Great Articles

I wish I had written both of these articles - they're extremely well written, and they'll give you a perspecitve on wireless that you won't get from any of the conventional sources.

I recommend them highly, and I think they're both exactly correct in their assertions.

Harold Feld - My Insanely Long Field Guide To LightSquared v. the GPS Guys. 

Matt Larsen - Rural Broadband, Picture Essay. 

 

Thanks Guys - you've inspired me to get back on the wagon in the saddle.

 

Steve Stroh