Good Day, BWIA is a light compendium of news, items of interest, irreverent commentary, and occasional light analysis relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (including WiMAX, public access Wi-Fi, etc.).
Unlike yesterday, there is a at least a bit of significant BWIA-related news today, but to do the predictions / trends, it's a short-shrift day for news. To wit:
- Airspan has received FCC approval (.doc file link) for its 3.65 GHz products (3650 MHz band)
- China might be eschewing Mobile WiMAX for new Broadband Wireless Internet Access services in favor of a yet-to-be-developed proprietary-to-China Broadband Wireless Internet Access system; hmmm... this is how we leaped ahead of the 802.20/802.16e deadlock for deciding upon the mobile version of WiMAX when Korea threatened to move ahead with WiBro.
- Esme Vos' first installment of Most important muni wireless stories of 2007
As I explained yesterday, I've been mulling over some predictions / trends for the coming year, so I thought I'd share some of them. Part 1 appeared on Wednesday, December 26, 2007.
Death of wireless walled garden As in coffin nailed shut, concrete poured into the grave dead. The iPhone is merely the forerunner of this trend. We'll likely see it emerge fully-formed with the "gPhones" - phones based on the Google Android reference design. It's simple - customers want access to the Internet to get the information that they want, and they want the carrier to stay out of the way from them getting to that information. And what they want is highly specific. Kids want access to MySpace. Adults want stocks. Some want video - their video, not what Verizon deigns to offer them on Vcast. Any of the music download services run by the wireless telephony companies are... well, the only word is pathetic, compared to the richness of iTunes for "old" music and direct access to the sites of new, exciting bands. I keep preaching the gospel of Isenberg's Stupid Network - it applies to wireless as well as it did to wireline.
Insanely high bids, no services as a result of 700 MHz Auctions The title pretty well says it. The prices will be insanely high except for some "why would I want that area?" geographical areas that are unwanted by the biggest bidders. Despite the rhetoric from Google and others, we won't see any new services resulting from the 700 MHz auctions except for new Broadband Wireless Internet Access services from very small, geographically focused wireline telephony companies who've made the leap that it's more cost-effective to provide Broadband Internet Access via wireless than to upgrade their wireline infrastructure.
Rise Of White Spaces The flip side to 700 MHz is that use of television broadcast white spaces - those television channels between 2 and 51 that aren't actually being used for television broadcasting, will be blessed by the FCC for license-exempt communications usage. Not that it will go easy - the television broadcast industry will ratchet up their fearmongering, but they're going to be kept pretty busy trying to explain to every last television viewer... under federal mandate... that 1) if you're an over-the-air viewer, you need to buy an adapter or a new television set before February 2009, and 2) if you're watching television over cable or satellite, you can safely ignore all the hype about the digital television conversion, and 3) helping consumers figure out which category they belong in (no joke... especially for seniors). Remember that the last big "change" in television broadcasting came in the 1960's as color was phased into general usage.
Clearwire Takes Over Sprint Nextel 2.5 GHz Spectrum I don't see any way in which this isn't inevitable. Clearwire has the vision, but they'll need a lot more money, and although it's a bit nuts, Clearwire apparently still isn't deploying Mobile WiMAX in new markets. Sprint Nextel will struggle just to rationalize its Nextel 800 MHz conversion and its Sprint 1.9 GHz CDMA networks and streamline their overall businesses - it simply can't afford, or significantly fund Mobile WiMAX on 2.5 GHz spectrum - even if the strident shareholders were supportive, which they're not.
Conclusion of predictions / trends on Friday.
Clearwire Modem Weather Report - Hollywood Hill, Woodinville, Washington - Solid 4 Bars. Could be snow again today.
By Steve Stroh
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(Last updated 2007-11-06)
This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
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