Good Day, BWIA (GDBWIA) 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.). As always, thanks for being "one of the five".
Things That Get Me Excited About BWIA Today? I'm late to the party on taking note of Stelera Wireless LLC, a Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider (BWIA SP) using new Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum (1.7 / 2.1 GHz) to provide Broadband Internet Access in rural areas. They're using HSPA - Broadband over Wireless Telephony based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology.
Good spectrum - it will eventually be well-supported because it's adjacent to the heavily used (worldwide) 1.9 GHz "PCS" wireless telephony band and there were bigger players like T-Mobile USA that bought in. That means Stelera will be able to buy systems and devices off-the-shelf. Bad news... they'll be buying them from very large vendors like (Om Malik reports) Nokia Siemens Networks who are more used to dealing with, and pricing their systems, for very large wireless telephony carriers. Let's hope that the principals of Stelera have done ample due diligence from a previous high-profile incarnation of this same business model - Monet Mobile Networks. Both chose to use wireless telephony spectrum for purely Broadband Internet Access services in rural markets. Monet ultimately failed when they couldn't achieve sufficient scale to be able to afford the overhead of having bought licensed wireless telephony spectrum.
If I had a story category of things that make me sanguine, it would be... Does anyone else see a problem with this particular business model? I remain highly skeptical of xG Technology - pretty much all of it. I'm skeptical of their technology (I still haven't seen any objective tests to date that validate xG's claims of a revolutionary new wireless technology; I'm not necessarily saying there haven't been any; I just haven't been privy to any). I remain skeptical of xG's overall prospects based primarily on a new technology. I've seen a lot of good (wireless) technology go down to ruin through no failings of the technology (or the company) - market conditions can sometimes turn unexpectedly, fatally, brutal and kill promising technologies.I remain skeptical that xG's xMax technology will, in the end, amount to much more than a technological "twist" that has no substantial practical application. And I'm especially skeptical of xG's business model - sell wireless phone service via Independent agents? They're going to build a new telephony business (albeit based on wireless and Voice Over Internet Protocol Telephony)... in head-on competition with four giant, well-entrenched competitors and numerous regional competitors? I can hear the lips smacking of the giant telco's patent lawyers thinking of going after xG's use of VOIP as a tasty snack after dining on Vonage. Of which three of the four giant competitors just introduced unlimited plans that will save their heaviest users a lot of money? Asking the users to restrict themselves to a tiny number of markets and the hardware they buy is completely, totally unique and incompatible with any other wireless telephony system? And sell it through independent agents?
I'll be genuinely shocked if xG truly succeeds... but I've been shocked, dismayed, and justifiably pummeled for making calls like this before and being wrong. Maybe xG's xMax technology is a true "disruptive technology". Maybe not - we'll have to see when they commence actual commercial service there's finally a chance to do some objective testing and analysis of actual xMax devices and systems without xG paying for, and spinning, the result. Obligatory BWIA hook? xG Technology originally proposed its technology to provide Broadband Internet Access.
Clearwire Modem Weather Report - Hollywood Hill, Woodinville, Washington - None this morning - I'm working mobile today at my favorite Tully's Coffee in Woodinville, WA in front of one of the two gas log fireplaces on a somewhat gloomy, chilly day. My Sprint Nextel 595U 1xEVDO modem reports 3 of 4 bars, and that I'm in a (Sprint Nextel) 1xEV-DO Rev. A coverage area, and overall speed and response is pretty good. (I write about my experiences as a Clearwire user, and about
Clearwire the company and as a bellwether for the overall Broadband
Wireless Internet Access / WiMAX industry in the Independent Clearwire Blog. I write about wireless telephony / cellular Broadband Internet Access in the BWIA Cellular blog.)
Qwest (Wireless) Defecting To Verizon Wireless? Yawn. Much in the press, but mostly a non-event, Qwest is negotiating against Sprint Nextel, who currently provides Qwest's Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services, in the press. Qwest has under a million wireless subscribers, so it's a rounding error for both Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless to have, lose, or gain Qwest's wireless subscriber base. I can understand Qwest negotiating in the press, and posturing to move the wireless customers over to Verizon Wireless. But actually doing that... there might be an object lesson for Qwest in the story of Gingerbread Man taking the fox's offer for a ride across the river. Obligatory BWIA? Qwest offers Broadband Wireless Internet Access - Qwest Mobile Laptop Service. Wow... they're brave enough to disclose up front that there's a 5 GB data transfer cap. Unstated in Qwest's negotiations-in-press is that Qwest sold some substantial PCS spectrum, under which it did operate its own wireless network, to Verizon Wireless several years ago.
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700 MHz Auction Total To Date - RCR Wireless News reports that the total to date is $19,527,759,900... and counting. I'll believe them. It'll be interesting to see the ultimate results of the bidding.
355 Days - Courtesy of (a customized countdown calendar on) Time And Date.com, we'll be able to enjoy 355 more days of glorious of "glorious" Never-The-Same-Color (NTSC) analog television broadcasting. Unless of course you're watching your NTSC analog television broadcasting on a Low Power Television (LPTV) station. Or a translator. (Both are currently exempt from the Digital Television (DTV) transition.) Or by "emergency" action, Congress postpones the NTSC analog broadcasting cutoff past February 19, 2009. Nah... couldn't happen... could it? Well, according to one of my sources, the DTV transition is a primary concern for next year's Congress. Think that Senior Citizens have some teeth that are felt in the backsides of Congresspeople? Try ticked-off television viewers in the wake of their perfectly good television receivers not being able to receive anything because "the government" decreed it so :-) Obligatory BWIA? Without clearing out television channels 51-69 (699.25 - 801.25 MHz)... there's no 700 MHz band in which to deploy all those much-promised new Broadband Wireless Internet Access services.
By Steve Stroh
Fine Print / Boilerplate / Acknowledgements / Credits / FAQs
(Last updated 2008-02-25)
This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
This article was written and posted via Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA); Sprint Mobile Broadband service using a Sierra Wireless 595U USB modem - 1xEV-DO Rev. A.
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