Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News

Broadband Wireless Internet Access Makes A Showing In ISP-Planet's Top 24 US ISPs List

I'm delighted to see a credible, ranked list of the largest US Internet Service Providers - Top 24 U.S. ISPs by Subscriber: Q3 2005. Author Alex Goldman, Managing Editor of ISP-Planet.com is highly credible.

Though there were only a few overt mentions of Broadband Wireless, Broadband Wireless Internet Access is being deployed by many of these companies. Here's what leaped out at me.

SBC-AT&T / Verizon Communications / BellSouth
SBC [guess we should get used to calling them AT&T now...] (#3), Verizon [Communications] (#6) and BellSouth (#9), all listed as "DSL only" have all disclosed that they have (fixed) Broadband Wireless Internet Access Programs trials underway to test "pre-WiMAX" and WiMAX equipment performance and market acceptance.

Cingular
SBC, er, "AT&T" and BellSouth are partners in Cingular, currently the #1 wireless telephony company in the US. Cingular's goal is to deploy "3G" Broadband Wireless Internet Access called HSDPA, and currently offers lower-speed Broadband Wireless Systems called UMTS and EDGE.

Verizon Wireless / Sprint/Nextel / ALLTEL
Verizon Wireless (partnership of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group), Sprint/Nextel (#13), ALLTEL (#17) (again, all listed as DSL only) are all deploying a 3G system called 1xEV-DO as well as an earlier, slower system called 1xRTT.

Sprint/Nextel
As a result of their merger, Sprint/Nextel now owns the majority of 2.5 GHz "Broadband Radio Service" licenses in the US. Sprint has a large installed base of Broadband Wireless Internet Access customers in its Sprint Broadband Direct service (once again accepting new customers). To great angst, (pre-merger) Nextel concluded a popular market trial of its Nextel Wireless Broadband service in June, 2005.

Earthlink
Earthlink (#4) is the winning bidder in the "Philadelphia Municipal Wi-Fi Project" and thus will soon be a Broadband Wireless Internet Access service provider. Earthlink is also bidding for a similar project in San Francisco and has stated that they'll be bidding on other such projects.

Earthlink / Hughes DIRECWAY
Earthlink and Hughes DIRECWAY (#19) both offer satellite Broadband Wireless Internet Access (Earthlink is via a reseller arrangement).

Covad Communications / NextWeb
Covad Communications (#14) announced plans to acquire NextWeb, a large Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider in California.

GCI
GCI (#24) uses Broadband Wireless Internet Access to connect a significant number of its customers.

But wait... there's actually more interest in Broadband Wireless Internet Access reflected in the Top 24 US ISPs if you take into account membership in the WiMAX Forum:

AOL (#1) - Regular Member
Comcast (#2) - Regular Member
AT&T (SBC) #3, Board Member (pre-merger AT&T) and Regular Member (pre-merger SBC)
BellSouth (#9) - Regular Member
Qwest (#12) - Regular Member
Sprint/Nextel (#13) - Board Member
Covad Communications (#14) - Regular Member (pre-merger NextWeb) and Principal Member (pre-merger Covad Communications)
Hughes Network Systems (Hughes DIRECWAY) (#19) - Regular Member
Speakeasy (overlooked?) - Regular Member

So... by my admittedly biased count, 9 of the 24 listed companies, 37%, are directly or indirectly involved in Broadband Wireless Internet Access. Factoring in "interest" reflected by membership in WiMAX Forum changes the count to 12 of the 24 listed companies - 50%!

Notably Absent - Speakeasy?
Speakeasy is one of the largest DSL service providers and my guess would have been that it's "comfortably North" of the 0.1 million subscriber level which put GCI on the list. Speakeasy commenced a test deployment of "pre-WiMAX" Broadband Wireless Internet Access in the Seattle area in 2005.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2005 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Categories:

• Broadband Wireless Internet Access / Broadband Wireless Access / Wireless Broadband / Wireless Access / Fixed Wireless
  
• Broadband Wireless Service Provider / BWSP
  
• Competitive Broadband DSL
  
• Competitive Broadband Cable Modem
  
• Predictions / Forecasts / Statistics / Numbers / Studies / White Papers / Reports
  

Vivato Ceases Operations

(1 update - see below)

Glenn Fleishman actually got the scoop. Kudos to Glenn!

Vivato Ceases Operations: Breaking News

Breaking news--Vivato has ceased operations according to a company spokesperson: I just confirmed this minute that early enterprise wireless switch maker Vivato has shut down. Unstrung was reporting earlier today that the buzz on the street was a Dec. 20 halt. A reliable source told me this evening that the shutdown had already occurred, and I was able to confirm it late this evening with the company.

(Via Wi-Fi Networking News.)

It took me a long time to reconcile Vivato's reality against its carefully (and expensively) crafted public image. I'm glad that Glenn provides some detail about the stark differences between the amazing performance of the prototypes versus the mundane performance of the production units. What screwed me up about Vivato was that people whose reputations I trust saw it and were amazed, including a source of mine who I knew well and trusted implicitly and was in a position to objectively evaluate Vivato and verified that the units that he saw worked as advertised.

Update 1 - Ed Mitchell writes a bit more about exactly this issue and explains it pretty thoroughly, and from the point of view of one who was associated with Vivato in the early days of the "amazing performance" prototypes.

But in the main, Marlon Schafer had it right when he told me that what Vivato was actually shipping was nothing special technologically.

Former Vivato employee Jim Thompson regularly vented bile on Vivato in his blog. He performed a useful function, exposing the seamiest technological details of Vivato's shipping products, and a candid Vivato rep at a conference confessed that Thompson was causing them some real pain.

Three things that stand out in my mind about Vivato. The first is that Vivato ended up being an absolute triumph of marketing and PR over substance. The marketing/PR folks at Vivato did a masterful job. They smoothed over performance issues of customers, they presented the face of a company that continuously made impressive sales and kept winning customers.

My second profound impression about Vivato was that they were the at the leading edge of a trend to extend Wi-Fi technology into a mission for which it was previously ill-suited. Until Vivato, Wi-Fi was mostly Wireless Local Area Networking, and a relative handful of small, low-profile vendors selling adapted Wi-Fi systems into the Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) market. I think that the high-profile investment in Vivato spawned other approaches to using Wi-Fi as last mile Broadband Wireless, including Wi-Fi mesh, and provided impetus to the then slow pace of getting the sub-11 GHz extensions of 802.16 finished, and eventually finalized into WiMAX.

The third was that Vivato requested, and received some interesting updates to the FCC Part 15.247 rules for license-exempt communications in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands. An FCC staffer told me candidly "Yeah, we were pretty dazzled by Vivato." Vivato's influence at the FCC made it clear that one company can make headway at the FCC if they really know what they're doing.

I thought I had jokingly stated in my blog, but apparently not. Given its history of eclectic acquisitions, Vivato may well be the next acquisition of YDI/Terabeam/Proxim.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2005 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Categories:

• Broadband Wireless Internet Access / Broadband Wireless Access / Wireless Broadband / Wireless Access / Fixed Wireless
  
• Outdoor / Long Range / Public Wi-Fi / WiFi / 802.11a / 802.11g / 802.11b
  
• 2.4 GHz Spectrum
  
• Antennas / Antenna Systems / Beam Forming / Beam Steering / Phased Array
  
• Background / History
  
• Deadpool / Out Of Business / Bankruptcy
  
• FCC Part 15 / 15.247
  
• License Exempt Spectrum / License-exempt / Unlicensed / No License
  
• Mesh Networking / Wireless Mesh Network
  
• Municipal Broadband Wireless / MuniWireless / Municipal Wi-Fi
  
• Policy / Regulations / Regulatory / Legal / FCC / Spectrum Allocation
  
• Wireless Cloud
  
• Wireless HotSpots / Wi-Fi HotSpots / WiFi HotSpots
  
• Wireless HotZones / Wi-Fi HotZones / WiFi HotZones
  

Clearwire Pulling Back On Its Seattle-area Deployment?

I've gotten some hints that Clearwire is delaying its plans to offer Broadband Wireless Internet Access service in the greater Seattle area. If true, bummer... ever since I read that Clearwire was lining up tower permits here, I've been looking forward to subscribing, once again, to Broadband Wireless Internet Access service at my home in Woodinville, Washington. (OK, technically, I'm doing so already.)

Here are some guesses - only guesses - not even informed speculation, as to why Clearwire might be pulling back, for now, on deploying service in the Seattle area:

• Sooner or later Clearwire is going to have to do more than pay lip service to deploying WiMAX systems given Intel's investment in Clearwire in late 2004. The WiMAX industry is now in turmoil because of the just-approved 802.16"e" standard for Mobile / Portable (depending on whose definition you choose) Broadband Wireless Internet Access interoperability, which now needs to be developed into WiMAX interoperability profiles. That means more months of delay, say mid-2006, and then actual WiMAX Forum interoperability testing of "WiMAX Mobile" (another six months, say EOY 2006. While the WiMAX partisans claim that 802.16"e" does provide compatibility with 802.16-2004 (the current official 802.16 standard) / "Fixed" WiMAX... no one will really know about such interoperability until there is enough gear on the market to provide some real world feedback. Not to mention that the WiMAX industry is now waiting for the Qualcomm "patent hammer" to fall in the aftermath of their acquisition of Flarion Technologies and their rich patent portfolio related to OFDM, the key technology of WiMAX. NextNet Wireless, Clearwire's sole-source equipment supplier hasn't offered any public direction about their plans to offer WiMAX-compatible systems. I guess that if I were Clearwire and contemplating such a high-profile deployment in such as "wireless-hip" urban area such as the Seattle area and needed to do WiMAX... I'd probably hesitate too.
  
• The competition (though they deign to be classified as having any real competition for "full mobility Broadband Internet Access") from the wireless telephony companies isn't exactly standing still. The Seattle area is one of the few US urban markets where Clearwire will deploy services. Comcast's cable modems can now do 6 Mbps, and comparitively-pokey DSL from Verizon (Eastside and North) and Qwest (Seattle and environs) might get a bit more interesting now that Verizon Communications has announced plans to deploy its FIOS Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP) Broadband Internet Access service in Washington. In comparison, Clearwire service at 1.5 Mbps maximum isn't that compelling.
  
• The City Of Seattle periodically makes noises that it's possibly interested in deploying a city-backed Wi-Fi system like many other cities are doing. Competing with Wi-Fi is like competing with Free; pretty tough when you're selling (or leasing - hah...) a proprietary radio that very much is not Wi-Fi. (It's true that consumers sometimes don't know technology, but they do know branding, and they've been imprinted to look for Wi-Fi and even 802.11g in preference to 802.11b; Thank Intel.)
  
• Sprint/Nextel has, or at least had, leases on 2.5 GHz spectrum in the Seattle area. As a condition of the merger, the companies had to pledge to make some use of their combined 2.5 GHz spectrum (imagine that conversation at the FCC - "Sprint and Nextel, do you solemnly swear to deploy services in your 2.5 GHz spectrum, for better or for worse...") Perhaps Sprint/Nextel is planning to turn on some old gear on the top of the Bank Of America Building (just renamed to something else) like they've recently done in existing markets for their old mothballed-until-just-recently Broadband Direct service.
  
• MetroFi just might come to town! 1 Mbps "just move the bits" service for $20/month - that's compelling Broadband Wireless Internet Access! C'mon folks - quit beating heads with Google and c'mon up to the Seattle area! (OK, wishful thinking on my part for this one; branching so far out of the comfortable environs of Silicon Valley is probably a bit too far, too fast for MetroFi.)
  
• Bellevue (no longer Woodinville - sniff)-based AccelNet is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Seattle metro area for Broadband Wireless Internet Access (mostly for business-grade service), as may Speakeasy (how much better a symbol for "Tower #1" can you get than the Seattle Space Needle?)
  
• Heck... I just received notice that WildBlue is now taking orders for its Satellite Broadband Internet Access service in the Redmond, Washington area - like Clearwire "up to" 1.5 Mbps (yes, there are latency issues - can't beat the physics of a 44,600 mile trip from the user to the Internet, and then back) for prices "as low as" $50/month.
  
• A "bigger picture" issue is that eighteen months after Clearwire uncloaked from stealth mode, they still haven't (to my knowledge) offered telephone service. Why they haven't is puzzling; offering telephone service via NextNet Wireless systems is very well-established by the large deployment by MVS Comunicaciones in Mexico. When I "outed" Clearwire in my newsletter a few months before their public unveiling, I speculated that a bundled telephone service offering would have to eventually be part of Clearwire's offering to be compelling and profitable.
  
• One thing about Clearwire's plans that wasn't apparent until quite some time after its public unveiling was the extent to which they would be offering Clearwire service in non-US markets. Doing so has got to suck up an enormous amount of resources.
  
• Then again, it could be something far more mundane, like devoting scarce resources (even in such a well-funded startup) to areas where it can offer a compelling advantage, like Friday Harbor, Washington on incredibly picturesque San Juan Island in Puget Sound.
  

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2005 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Categories:

• Broadband Wireless Internet Access / Broadband Wireless Access / Wireless Broadband / Wireless Access / Fixed Wireless
  
• Outdoor / Long Range / Public Wi-Fi / WiFi / 802.11a / 802.11g / 802.11b
  
• WiMAX / 802.16a / 802.16-2004 / Mobile WiMAX / 802.16e / 802.20
  
• 3G / Cellular / 1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / 1xEVDO / GPRS / UMTS / HSDPA
  
• 2.5 GHz / MMDS / ITFS / Broadband Radio Service / BRS Spectrum
  
• Broadband Wireless Service Provider / BWSP
  
• BWIA Barometer Service Provider - Clearwire
  
• Competitive Broadband DSL
  
• Competitive Broadband Cable Modem
  
• Competitive Broadband Fiber / FTTH / FTTP
  
• Licensed Spectrum
  
• License Exempt Spectrum / License-exempt / Unlicensed / No License
  
• Municipal Broadband Wireless / MuniWireless / Municipal Wi-Fi
  
• Proprietary Broadband Wireless Internet Access Technology Standards
  
• Satellite Broadband Internet Access
  
• Wireless DSL / Wireless T-1
  
• Wireless Cloud
  
• Wireless Internet Service Provider / WISP / WISPs
  

Clearwire Pulling Back On Its Seattle-area Deployment?

(This article was originally posted on Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX News blog, permalink  www.bwianews.com/2005/12/clearwire_pulli.html.)

I've gotten some hints that Clearwire is delaying its plans to offer Broadband Wireless Internet Access service in the greater Seattle area. If true, bummer... ever since I read that Clearwire was lining up tower permits here, I've been looking forward to subscribing, once again, to Broadband Wireless Internet Access service at my home in Woodinville, Washington. (OK, technically, I'm doing so already.)

Here are some guesses - only guesses - not even informed speculation, as to why Clearwire might be pulling back, for now, on deploying service in the Seattle area:

• Sooner or later Clearwire is going to have to do more than pay lip service to deploying WiMAX systems given Intel's investment in Clearwire in late 2004. The WiMAX industry is now in turmoil because of the just-approved 802.16"e" standard for Mobile / Portable (depending on whose definition you choose) Broadband Wireless Internet Access interoperability, which now needs to be developed into WiMAX interoperability profiles. That means more months of delay, say mid-2006, and then actual WiMAX Forum interoperability testing of "WiMAX Mobile" (another six months, say EOY 2006. While the WiMAX partisans claim that 802.16"e" does provide compatibility with 802.16-2004 (the current official 802.16 standard) / "Fixed" WiMAX... no one will really know about such interoperability until there is enough gear on the market to provide some real world feedback. Not to mention that the WiMAX industry is now waiting for the Qualcomm "patent hammer" to fall in the aftermath of their acquisition of Flarion Technologies and their rich patent portfolio related to OFDM, the key technology of WiMAX. NextNet Wireless, Clearwire's sole-source equipment supplier hasn't offered any public direction about their plans to offer WiMAX-compatible systems. I guess that if I were Clearwire and contemplating such a high-profile deployment in such as "wireless-hip" urban area such as the Seattle area and needed to do WiMAX... I'd probably hesitate too.
  
• The competition (though they deign to be classified as having any real competition for "full mobility Broadband Internet Access") from the wireless telephony companies isn't exactly standing still. The Seattle area is one of the few US urban markets where Clearwire will deploy services. Comcast's cable modems can now do 6 Mbps, and comparitively-pokey DSL from Verizon (Eastside and North) and Qwest (Seattle and environs) might get a bit more interesting now that Verizon Communications has announced plans to deploy its FIOS Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP) Broadband Internet Access service in Washington. In comparison, Clearwire service at 1.5 Mbps maximum isn't that compelling.
  
• The City Of Seattle periodically makes noises that it's possibly interested in deploying a city-backed Wi-Fi system like many other cities are doing. Competing with Wi-Fi is like competing with Free; pretty tough when you're selling (or leasing - hah...) a proprietary radio that very much is not Wi-Fi. (It's true that consumers sometimes don't know technology, but they do know branding, and they've been imprinted to look for Wi-Fi and even 802.11g in preference to 802.11b; Thank Intel.)
  
• Sprint/Nextel has, or at least had, leases on 2.5 GHz spectrum in the Seattle area. As a condition of the merger, the companies had to pledge to make some use of their combined 2.5 GHz spectrum (imagine that conversation at the FCC - "Sprint and Nextel, do you solemnly swear to deploy services in your 2.5 GHz spectrum, for better or for worse...") Perhaps Sprint/Nextel is planning to turn on some old gear on the top of the Bank Of America Building (just renamed to something else) like they've recently done in existing markets for their old mothballed-until-just-recently Broadband Direct service.
  
• MetroFi just might come to town! 1 Mbps "just move the bits" service for $20/month - that's compelling Broadband Wireless Internet Access! C'mon folks - quit beating heads with Google and c'mon up to the Seattle area! (OK, wishful thinking on my part for this one; branching so far out of the comfortable environs of Silicon Valley is probably a bit too far, too fast for MetroFi.)
  
• Bellevue (no longer Woodinville - sniff)-based AccelNet is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Seattle metro area for Broadband Wireless Internet Access (mostly for business-grade service), as may Speakeasy (how much better a symbol for "Tower #1" can you get than the Seattle Space Needle?)
  
• Heck... I just received notice that WildBlue is now taking orders for its Satellite Broadband Internet Access service in the Redmond, Washington area - like Clearwire "up to" 1.5 Mbps (yes, there are latency issues - can't beat the physics of a 44,600 mile trip from the user to the Internet, and then back) for prices "as low as" $50/month.
  
• A "bigger picture" issue is that eighteen months after Clearwire uncloaked from stealth mode, they still haven't (to my knowledge) offered telephone service. Why they haven't is puzzling; offering telephone service via NextNet Wireless systems is very well-established by the large deployment by MVS Comunicaciones in Mexico. When I "outed" Clearwire in my newsletter a few months before their public unveiling, I speculated that a bundled telephone service offering would have to eventually be part of Clearwire's offering to be compelling and profitable.
  
• One thing about Clearwire's plans that wasn't apparent until quite some time after its public unveiling was the extent to which they would be offering Clearwire service in non-US markets. Doing so has got to suck up an enormous amount of resources.
  
• Then again, it could be something far more mundane, like devoting scarce resources (even in such a well-funded startup) to areas where it can offer a compelling advantage, like Friday Harbor, Washington on incredibly picturesque San Juan Island in Puget Sound.
  

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2005, 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Categories:

• Broadband Wireless Internet Access / Broadband Wireless Access / Wireless Broadband / Wireless Access / Fixed Wireless
  
• Outdoor / Long Range / Public Wi-Fi / WiFi / 802.11a / 802.11g / 802.11b
  
• WiMAX / 802.16a / 802.16-2004 / Mobile WiMAX / 802.16e / 802.20
  
• 3G / Cellular / 1xRTT / 1xEV-DO / 1xEVDO / GPRS / UMTS / HSDPA
  
• 2.5 GHz / MMDS / ITFS / Broadband Radio Service / BRS Spectrum
  
• Broadband Wireless Service Provider / BWSP
  
• BWIA Barometer Service Provider - Clearwire
  
• Competitive Broadband DSL
  
• Competitive Broadband Cable Modem
  
• Competitive Broadband Fiber / FTTH / FTTP
  
• Licensed Spectrum
  
• License Exempt Spectrum / License-exempt / Unlicensed / No License
  
• Municipal Broadband Wireless / MuniWireless / Municipal Wi-Fi
  
• Proprietary Broadband Wireless Internet Access Technology Standards
  
• Satellite Broadband Internet Access
  
• Wireless DSL / Wireless T-1
  
• Wireless Cloud
  
• Wireless Internet Service Provider / WISP / WISPs

SKYTILITY Update

I was informed that as of December 1, 2005, my consulting relationship with SKYTILITY has been terminated, so I am no longer affiliated with them.

Any questions should be directed to SKYTILITY.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2005 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Categories:

• Administrivia / Other Steve Stroh writing / venues / podcasts
  
• Launches / New Ventures