Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News

Announcing Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Providers

Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Providers is our newest Stroh Publications LLC site. Like some of the other sites we have debuted to date:

• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Books
• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Organizations
• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Press Releases
• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Vendors

... Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Providers is a fairly simple list, but I think it fills a need in the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry. This is such a new industry (though I've been writing about it for ten years now) it's hard to bring some of this information together, and when it has been done in the past, it's a one-time or periodic effort. One way in which I personally will use this list is to refer journalists who contact me to it so that they can see for themselves that 1) the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry considerably predates the recent emergence of WiMAX, and 2) there are a lot of Broadband Wireless Internet Access service providers out there, in many different forms.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh.

Welcome, Welcome to Seattle, Towerstream!

(Please note that this article is wholly original content, written exclusively for the Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog - http://www.bwianews.com)

Towerstream announced today that it has partnered with Speakeasy, Inc. for "nationwide distribution of Wireless Broadband services". They're starting with Seattle, with Towerstream acquiring the assets of Speakeasy's ill-fated, high-profile, Intel-funded, "call-it-WiMAX-for-effect-but-it-isn't-really" Broadband Wireless deployment that used the world famous Seattle Space Needle as a base station in mid-2005. Sources have told me that Speakeasy's engineers simply weren't up to the task of learning the minutiae of Broadband Wireless Internet Access, and Speakeasy quietly discontinued the service after a few months.

Stealth announcement - I have posted the press release for this development on our newest Stroh Publications LLC site - Broadband Wireless Internet Access Press Releases.

Partnerships such as this between independent Broadband Wireless Internet Access and independent "wireline" Broadband Internet Access companies are the wave of things to come as "wireline" Internet Service Providers (ISPs) find themselves increasingly marginalized by incumbent telephone companies that are no longer required to equitably resell access to their wireline network into customer premises (and no chance whatsoever to resell fiber or cable broadband services). Companies such as Towerstream simply "leap over" the incumbent telephone company's wireline networks using a variety of Broadband Wireless Internet Access technologies that are capable of speeds up to 1 Gbps. Towerstream is notable for being one of the first (and still few) companies of credible scale to use license-exempt spectrum to provide Broadband Internet Access in urban areas, and offer business-grade service level agreements for such services.

In its previous markets, Towerstream has "gone it alone", and though that strategy is certainly viable, and Towerstream claims (verifiable, now that Towerstream is a public company as of last week), quite profitable, it is slow going. In previous discussions with CEO Jeff Thompson, and in talks Thompson has given at industry conferences, Thompson has repeatedly made the point that the primary limit to Towerstream expanding into new markets is not the wireless systems technology (they're certainly not "waiting for WiMAX"), capital, or even rooftop real estate - Towerstream has been able to "scale" those factors successfully. What Thompson says he hasn't been able to scale rapidly is a trained, capable, motivated sales force, and he would seem to have solved that problem in partnering with Speakeasy and their established nationwide marketing capabilities for (again, resold) wireline DSL and T-1 services.

There are a number of interesting wrinkles to the Towerstream/Speakeasy announcement:

• Towerstream targets only businesses (small ranging to large); Speakeasy targets both savvy consumers who chafe at restrictive terms of service and mediocre performance of DSL service directly from incumbent telephone companies. With Towerstream, Speakeasy now has a way to target larger businesses by offering higher bandwidth services, and Towerstream can move "downmarket" with Speakeasy's established sales channels.
  
• Both Towerstream and Speakeasy have an enlightened attitude towards Terms of Service, for example, "sharing" via Wi-Fi; both express the attitude that "the customer paid for the bandwidth; the customer can do pretty much whatever they want with that purchased bandwidth." In marked contrast to considerable hand-wringing by incumbent telephne companies and cable broadband providers, neither Towerstream nor Speakeasy has ever experessed any angst over their service being used as "backhaul" for Wi-Fi users.
  
• Speakeasy and Covad have had a close partnership for some time for both DSL and T-1 services, and it's interesting that Speakeasy chose to partner with Towerstream for Broadband Wireless Internet Access instead of Covad. Covad is increasingly embracing Broadband Wireless Internet Access as another connectivity option to their customers. A recent press release (PDF) mentions "Covad Wireless" instead of NextWeb Wireless, a Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider that Covad acquired several years ago that offers similar scale and capability to Towerstream.
• I predict that Towerstream will find Seattle to be one of its most interesting and challenging markets. Being home to the former McCaw Cellular / AT&T Wireless, this area "knows" wireless... well... at least people around here are familiar with the idea of wireless. Cingular... er... "Wireless-related-parts-of-AT&T" still have considerable presence in the Seattle area, and wireless telephony companies T-Mobile and Alltel have a significant presence here. The Seattle area is one of the first markets for AT&T's "HSDPA" Broadband Wireless Internet Access service.
• Most significantly to Towerstream, Clearwire is headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, and while only the lowest-end Towerstream customers would be potential Clearwire customers, Clearwire and Speakeasy appear to compete for the same customer base.
• Also in the Seattle area, Towerstream/Speakeasy will come up against Accelnet, an existing, scrappy Broadband Wireless Internet Service Provider offering much the same services, pricing, and technology. When contacted, an Accelnet executive offered no comment about Towerstream's entry into the Seattle market. Other regional Broadband Wireless Service providers similar to AccelNet worth watching are Freewire Broadband* headquartered in the Portland, OR area and apparently (see their map) "encroaching North", and MetroBridge Networks of Vancouver, BC who has now entered US markets (though no mention of the Seattle area).

I predict that the most fertile markets that Towerstream will find for their services in the Seattle area are the "Eastside" (across lake Washington from Seattle) suburbs of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Bothell, and Woodinville. This is the area where many, many small-to-medium high-tech businesses are located, and the Eastside has never been served "well" (subjective, admittedly) by Verizon, formerly GTE.

* Disclaimer - I have consulted for a sister company of Freewire Broadband.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh.

(Press Release) WiMAX Innovator to Lead Clearwire’s Wireless Broadband Initiatives

From Business Wire - link

January 29, 2007 11:00 AM Eastern Time
Clearwire Names Scott Richardson as Chief Strategy Officer

WiMAX Innovator to Lead Clearwire’s Wireless Broadband Initiatives

KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Clearwire Corporation today named Scott Richardson as the company’s new chief strategy officer, effective immediately.

Richardson previously served as vice president of Intel’s Mobility Group and general manager of the company’s Service Provider Business Group. In these roles, Richardson led Intel’s broadband wireless efforts from its inception and was responsible for driving the company’s 802.16 silicon products for WiMax Certified wireless equipment and access devices.

During 19 years with Intel, Richardson held a variety of positions, including general manager of Intel’s OEM communication systems business serving the networking and communications market. Previously, he led software efforts within Intel’s Enterprise Server Group and held various staff roles in communications businesses. He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Clarkson University in New York.

About Clearwire

Clearwire, founded in October 2003 by Craig O. McCaw, is a provider of reliable, wireless high-speed Internet service. Headquartered in Kirkland, Wash., the company launched its first market in August 2004 and now offers service in 35 metro markets, covering more than 350 municipalities in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin in the United States, as well as Ireland, Belgium, Denmark (under the Clearwire name through Danske Telecom) and Mexico (through its partner MVSNet). For more information, visit www.clearwire.com. Information on our website should not be construed as part of this press release.
Contacts

Clearwire
Teresa Fausti, 425-828-8018
Teresa.Fausti@clearwire.com

We Are Pleased To Announce...

Postings have been a bit sparse this week, not due to a lack of activity in the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry; here at Stroh Publications LLC, we've been busy behind the scenes. It's not just the readers that have gone wanting this past week- cats have gone unpetted, dogs have gone unwalked, rare winter sunlight in the Seattle area has gone un-enjoyed, and our office's reserves of good Tully's Coffee have taken a real beating. But all that has been well worth it!

As you might have noted on the sidebar (and, if you didn't please do, three new web sites are listed under the title "Other Stroh Publications LLC wireless sites". They are:

• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Books


• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Organizations


• Broadband Wireless Internet Access Vendors

Their titles should be self-explanatory. They are the first three new blogs... er, columns... er, sites of our new venture, Stroh Publications LLC (formal site for that coming real soon now :-). There will be a number of such sites that will gradually emerge in the coming weeks and months. A few, such as the these first three, will have relatively "static" content, and thus only updated periodically. The vast majority of the Stroh Publications LLC sites will be dynamic, with original content - definitely not the "Wow, look what the New York Times wrote about the latest corporate scandal [LINK]" postings of a typical blog.

The new sites have a much more clean and crisp appearance, with more useful tools offered in the sidebars. That is all thanks to TypePad, which is turning out to be a "dark side of the moon / bright side of the moon comparison with Blogger, the blogging platform that I've used for several years for the Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog. In fairness, it's the "old" Blogger that looks so old and tired and shabby in comparison to TypePad, but based in part to some bad experiences I've read about in converting from "old Blogger" to "new Blogger"... I'm going to pass. The Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog will (soon) be migrated to TypePad instead of "new Blogger" primarily because 1) I'm so delighted overall with the experience I'm having with TypePad as a serious, well-supported, stable blog production / hosting environment, and 2) the wonderful and easy-to-use MarsEdit offline weblog editor for Mac OS X doesn't currently support "new" Blogger. (It doesn't support all of the features of TypePad that I'd like it to, but it's more than good enough now to markedly improve my ability to blog.)

I have also updated the "Of Note" links on the sidebar (the only survivor of all the links that previously resided there); apologies to all whose links had gotten old, tired, or expired.

And Now For Something Completely Different
I probably use that phrase too much. Oh well... but this is a first on the Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog... our first YouTube clip! We are so proud! The next thing you know Stroh Publications LLC will have its own MySpace page. On second though... no.. we won't. On an only slightly more serious note... in this YouTube clip, Stephen Colbert really does explains the whole AT&T thing pretty well. It's certainly the most entertaining explanation of the tortured ancestry of Cingular, SBC, BellSouth, and now... what I've taken to calling the new, New, NEW AT&T that I've seen. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading the Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX weblog!

Steve Stroh, Editor / Analyst
Tina Stroh, Business Manager
Stroh Publications LLC

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh (except for the YouTube clip.)

From January WCA - The Big FOUR in US WiMAX Deployments

Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now I feel good, I knew that I would, now So good, so good...

From I FEEL GOOD by James Brown.

Apologies for that "musical" interlude above, but it did feel "so good" to attend "WCA Expo" as Press last week, getting to learn new things again that I can write about and share, and it feels just as good to be writing full time for this and the other (very soon) Stroh Publications column/blogs.

No Wireless Telephony Representation at WCA Expo?
In my previous posting, I neglected to mention a curious absence at the recently-concluded Wireless Communications Association International's (WCAI) annual International Symposium and Business Expo held January 16-19, 2007 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. I may have overlooked a speaker or two... but I noted that the wireless telephony (cellular) industry didn't seem to have any representation at WCA. This is in marked contrast to previous WCA events that I've attended - there is almost always someone from the wireless telephony industry on panel sessions to "show the flag" of their industry and argue that they are "already doing Broadband Wireless Internet Access" with existing spectrum, existing RF and back-end infrastructure, deploying quickly, using mature technology, doing all this on a national scale, and finding eager customers.

But I didn't hear any of that at "WCA Expo" this year. I have a few theories as to "why", of course. One is that with Sprint/Nextel's decision last year to use WiMAX technology in their 2.5 GHz spectrum and Motrola and Intel's massive funding of Clearwire, there's no longer any hope of "blunting" the momentum of WiMAX in the US. Another was that perhaps they decided to put their energies into exhibiting at the massive Consumer Electronics Show (which has somewhat assumed the role for the computer and network industries that the COMDEX trade show used to play) or put all their energies into "preaching to the converted" at the upcoming CTIA Wireless 2007 Conference March 27-29, 2007 in Orlando, Florida.

But mostly, I missed some of the fiery technological rhetoric exchanges between the partisans of CDMA and OFDM/A :-)

The Big Four In US WiMAX Deployments?

Another interesting thing I learned at "WCA Expo" is that there seem to be four large Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Providers that intend to deploy WiMAX. The first two are, of course, Sprint/Nextel and Clearwire.

The third is the new New NEW AT&T (formerly SBC, who merged with AT&T, who then merged with BellSouth, and with that merger now controls all of Cingular Wireless which will soon be rebranded, yet again, to AT&T [but not, apparently to AT&T Wireless - just "AT&T-division-that-provides-wireless-telephony-services"]). I knew that SBC owned a substantial amount of 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service (WCS) spectrum, but I had forgotten that (formerly standalone) AT&T Wireless also owned a substantial amount of WCS spectrum (from pre-merger AT&T's storied, promising, but ultimately doomed "Project Angel fixed wireless project), which then went to Cingular when it acquired AT&T Wireless, and now that "AT&T Wireless" WCS spectrum is now combined with the "BellSouth" WCS spectrum, resulting in the new New NEW AT&T now possessing a substantial US footprint of WCS Spectrum. While I'm not aware of AT&T publicly committing to deploy WiMAX in their WCS spectrum ala Sprint/Nextel... 1) deploy they must as a strong condition of the AT&T / BellSouth merger, and 2) AT&T would be hard-pressed to justify deploying anything but WiMAX in their WCS spectrum, given that 2.3 Mobile WiMAX technology will mature very rapidly given the proving ground of Korea already deploying "WiBro/WiMAX" systems in 2.3 GHz.

The fourth US BWIA Service Provider that will be deploying WiMAX is... NextWave. With only a quick glance at their web site, one could be forgiven for concluding that NextWave is primarily in the wireless components business... which it is... or that NextWave is in the handset software business... which it is, or (most recently) that NextWave is in the Metropolitan Wi-Fi systems business. But dig a bit and you find NextWave Broadband.

I heard it mentioned numerous times at "WCA Expo" that NextWave will be deploying WiMAX. NextWave owns substantial spectrum licenses including some holdover 1.9 GHz PCS spectrum (if memory serves), 2.3 GHz WCS, 2.5 GHz BRS, and most recently 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS spectrum acquired during the last year's auction of AWS spectrum. As far as using NextWave using WiMAX... ample evidence of NextWave's intent is on NextWave's masthead where you will find Dr. Roger B. Marks who can, in my opinion, very reasonably be called one of, if not the Father of IEEE 802.16 and WiMAX for his intense involvement in the evolution of 802.16 and WiMAX.

2007 will be an interesting year in the US for Broadband Wireless Internet Access!

• Verizon Wireless and Sprint/Nextel deploy 1xEV-DO revision A in their networks
  
• Sprint/Nextel deploys Mobile WiMAX in its 2.5 GHz BRS spectrum
  
• AT&T "Wireless" deploys HSDPA more widely in its network
  
• AT&T "Wireless" or AT&T "not-Wireless" deploys Mobile WiMAX in its 2.3 GHz WCS spectrum
  
• T-Mobile may finally get into Broadband Wireless competition (once it irons out the "pioneer" issues of being first in the US to use 1.7 / 2.1 GHz spectrum)
  
• Clearwire continues its aggressive deployments fueled by investments of >$1B
  
• Metropolitan Wi-Fi deployments continue unabated
  
• NextWave does... ?
  
• Covad having enough confidence in Broadband Wireless to quietly rebrand its NextWeb subsidiary acquired a few years ago into "Covad Wireless"

(Any big ones that I missed? Please let me know.)

Like I said... reporting on all this Feels GOOD!

Steve Stroh

This story is Copyright 2007 by Steve Stroh

WCA in January, WISPCON in February

WCAI International Symposium and Business Expo - great, as always! I had a great time being back in "Press Mode" at the recently-concluded Wireless Communications Association International's (WCAI) annual International Symposium and Business Expo held January 16-19, 2007 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. Special Thanks to WCAI President Andrew Kreig and WCAI Director of Communications Susan Polyakova for their graciousness in extending Press credentials on short notice.

I'll be writing more in depth about what I observed at "WCAI Expo" in the next few days but one of the more surprising things I observed there is an almost complete "disconnect" between the "Mobile WiMAX partisans" and the "Metropolitan Wi-Fi partisans". There were a number of panel sessions where speakers for one side or the other completely ignored not only the existence of the other side... but also ignored the implications of the other side. This was even evident on some of the panel sessions I attended where both sides were represented, but they chose to largely talk "past" the other side!

This was most blatant in a keynote presentation by an Intel representative that extolled Intel's vision of "Personal Mobile Broadband Devices" - a limited function, handheld device that would be always connected to the Internet at broadband speeds. To me, there were two glaring gaps in this presentation. The first was Intel's vision that the functionality of the device depended on connectivity, which completely ignores the current, and likely future success of devices like the iPod that are highly functional but not Internet-connected full-time because they make effective use of storage capability, both flash and disk.

But my second observation bothered me a lot more, and it spoke volumes about how Intel appears to be trying to create a market for Mobile WiMAX... when the functional connectivity that Intel espouses for their vision of the Personal Mobile Broadband Device is arguably available now with Metropolitan Wi-Fi networks. To Intel's credit, at least their presentation wasn't so blatant as other presenters who said "As we all know, Wi-Fi is completely unsuited for..."

While I'm not a partisan for either side - I agree that there's a place for Mobile WiMAX, and there's also a place for Metropolitan Wi-Fi, I'm simply being honest and accurate when I note that 1) the lines separating "which system will work best or most cost-effectively for a given application" are fuzzy at best, 2) the technology of both is evolving very rapidly, 3) in the end, both are capable of delivering a mobile, broadband "experience".

WISPCON in New Orleans, February 21-23, 2007
While attending "WCAI Expo" I caught up a bit with Michael Anderson, Chairman of Part-15.org which will be holding WISPCON 2007 (Wireless Internet Service Provider - WISP) in New Orleans February 21-23, 2007. Michael recruited me to speak at WISPCON 2007, I agreed, and it sure sounds like fun, not only catching up with a lot of familiar faces in the WISP industry, but also the timing of WISPCON coming on the heels of Mardi Gras! (Anderson said that there are still plenty of hotel rooms available, but it's probably best to call Part-15.org to get the particulars.)

Anderson is trying to broaden the attendance of WISPCON to present more public safety and emergency response sessions and information, holding it in still-decimated New Orleans. This is the first WISP-centric event of what I expect to be a very eventful year for the WISP industry, and I was told that there will be at least one important vendor announcement at WISPCON 2007 that will impact the WISP industry pretty profoundly.

Steve Stroh

Steve Stroh Returns to Writing About Broadband Wireless Internet Access

Beginning in January, 2007 I have returned to writing Independently about Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA). This year, a full decade after I began writing about it, Broadband Wireless Internet Access is finally becoming "mainstream". Most people (though they don't realize it) can now get at least basic BWIA service from Cingular, Sprint/Nextel, or Verizon Wireless. But more than those three companies, Clearwire, as a "pure" BWIA service provider is illustrating the concept of BWIA wonderfully, and its high profile is stoking interest in BWIA and WiMAX. In 2007, WiMAX in general (real WiMAX, as in certified systems, not proprietary systems "posing" as WiMAX) is finally on a rapid and exciting development path with a significant number of system deployments.

While there's vastly increased interest about Broadband Wireless Internet Access, I feel that there is a absolute dearth of good content on the subject of BWIA and WiMAX. Most of what passes for stories about BWIA and WiMAX are barely-warmed-over press releases or breathless boosterism about "the next big wireless thing" or, worst, blatant manipulation trying to succor investment and boost stock prices. Given that, I think there's room once again for quality, in-depth, and especially Independent coverage of the Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX industry and related fields.

In this new phase of my writing career, the majority of my writing will be for a group of highly-focused blogs that I will be developing about various aspects of Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX and a few other select technology topics. Not only have a few independent blogs become accepted as sources of quality, independent perspective and breaking news, but blog publishing systems and services have vastly improved in functionality, allowing me to be highly effective while independently publishing multiple blogs.

As a popular and widely-read analyst on the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry, I invite companies and organizations to advertise on this and my other blogs as they are developed. As each new blog is developed, I will report it here. Early advertisers will be given preferential rates; please contact us for more details.

In addition to my writing, I am again available to consult on Broadband Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX and I will likely be a speaker at several upcoming conferences relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Wishing my readers a productive and prosperous 2007,

Steve Stroh