I was explaining to a colleague about my decision to "get a day job" and cease trying to write about BWIA full-time, and perhaps earn a modest living at it. When I decided to look at my position in the BWIA industry as objectively as possible, one of the conclusions I reached was that the BWIA industry simply doesn't need, any longer, "cheerleaders" and "explainers" like what I had tried to do with my writing. I think that BWIA has reached a certain level of maturity; that BWIA has become, largely, "plug and play". Then I remembered...
I had predicted, either in my writing, or one of my presentations at a conference, that BWIA would come to this - that BWIA would get to the point of being "about as exciting as Ethernet". (I'll cite, by name, in an update to this post, the first reader that can dig out the "Ethernet" reference. I'm not in the right frame of mind to do so on one of those oh-so-rare beautiful, sunny, warm Saturday mornings here in the Seattle area.)
And, largely, BWIA has arrived at that point. Consider:
- If you want 100 Mbps Internet Access for your business, and you're in certain metro areas, you just order it up from Towerstream. They'll be out within a few days to install a radio, and with very little fuss, you'll have your 100 Mbps. Far faster, saner, and cheaper than ordering the equivalent Internet Access over fiber from the local incumbent telco or a competitive fiber service provider.
- If you want mobile / nearly everywhere Broadband Internet Access, you can get it from AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, or Sprint. The hardware for this has standardized on USB, so it works fine not just on laptops and desktops. For a lot of people, this "cellular broadband" option is more accessible than DSL or cable modem. Not to mention, it's mobile.
- Clearwire achieved real plug and play. You sign up for the service either at a retail store and take home a modem the size of a hardback book, or sign up online and it's mailed to you. You plug it in, aim it in the right direction with the help of the LEDs on the top, and you're online.
- Wi-Fi in the home, office, and public spaces has reached a point
of maturity and reliability. The lingering issues are largely with
earlier implementations. The "interference" issues are largely moot
with the advent of 802.11n and its seamless inclusion of the 550 MHz of
5 GHz spectrum. 802.11n's inclusion of Multiple In Multiple Out (MIMO)
technology also nicely solves the coverage issues; with MIMO, Wi-Fi
just largely "works as expected". Security... well, unlike with WEP,
the current Wi-Fi security systems seem to be "adquate", and for "pretty secure" corporate use, there's always Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Put it this way... I'm writing this from my deck, accessing a single
802.11n Access Point (AP) that covers my entire house very well
(802.11b APs provided only marginal coverage - I needed two to provide
the same coverage as the one 802.11n AP) and I'm pretty confident about the WPA security.
And it will just keep getting better.
If "New Clearwire" can now focus on deploying Mobile WiMAX, that will usher in a new paradigm in Internet connectivity - all the benefits of wireless, the speed of wired Internet access, (if done right...) price points of, say, $25-50/month), and a new paradigm to the wireless industry of the relative simplicity of applying TCP/IP to servicing tens of millions of devices that only have very sporadic, very minimal connectivity requirements that are highly cost-sensitive. Think vending machines... every vending machine.
Nextlink, and perhaps Covad, are girding to provide Towerstream its first real competition for business-grade fixed-BWIA services in metro areas. Towerstream could scale up and go truly national, and seems to have the infrastructure in place to be able to grow quickly by acquisition, but hasn't really exhibited that kind of agressiveness, so it will be leaving plenty of room for some intense competition.
As for me personally...
I enjoyed giving Clearwire a try as my household's sole Internet access. While it worked fine for typical Internet access, Broadband Internet Access via Clearwire's (current) NextNet/Motorola Expedience technology had some serious issues:
- Clearwire's marketing of a PCMCIA card to provide "mobility" service was a bad joke. If they really wanted to retain customers, they would have marketed it as a no-additional monthly service cost - access the Clearwire network from either the "stationary" modem or the PCMCIA card. That would be a compelling offering. Just ask customers to pay a one-time fee to purchase the modem. But trying to get customers to pay for the PCMCIA card at about the same price as the equivalent offering from the cellular companies, for severely limited coverage areas... that's a bad joke and a severe business miscalculation.
- When I transitioned from DSL to Clearwire, my Vonage VOIP service worked... OK..., but it gradually went from "a little bit worse" to "at times, unusable", largely because of highly variable latency and at times, severe packet loss (I pinged, a lot, and saw it). While I never did experience port-blocking for Vonage that was reported in the early days of Clearwire, the QOS issues that impacted my Vonage usage persuaded me that there was no way I was going to trust Clearwire for "toll quality" telephony service. If they had thrown it in with the base service offering, well, maybe I would have tried it. But to pay extra? Again - bad joke.
- Clearwire miscalculated about the cellular carriers taking a chunk out of their potential market with their enhanced Broadband services. Clearwire's speeds and pricing simply aren't the least bit compelling, and Clearwire's positioning that Clearwire service is competitive with same is, again, bad joke.
A couple of months ago, Verizon Communications made me an offer I couldn't refuse - they brought FIOS up my street. So now I have 15 Mbps (symmetric!) Internet Access for about the same price as I was was paying for pro-level DSL and Clearwire Internet Access. FIOS has been great. I have speeds faster than Comcast can offer (but given my previous run-ins with Comcast's billing and customer-antagonistic policies, I didn't consider them an option) at a very reasonable price.
At the moment, when I go roaming, I have a Sprint broadband USB card. But, like Clearwire, Sprint is about to become a bad joke because they've announced a change in their Terms of Service (TOS) that eliminates their "unlimited" plan, and implements a "transfer" cap of 5 GB/month. Oops... bad miscalculation on Sprint's part because the only reason Sprint's Broadband Internet service was competitive with Verizon Wireless was that Sprint didn't have a transfer cap and Verizon Wireless did. With their current price (same as Verizon Wireless), transfer cap (same as Verizon Wireless), 1xEV-DO Rev. A technology (same as Verizon Wireless) and much worse coverage (but OK in urban areas)... they're going to end up losing customers to Verizon Wireless. Probably a lot... or most. I don't think Sprint is long for this world with "vision" like that.
But as for me... once the 3G iPhone hits... I'll go that route and drop Sprint and not need to use my laptop out and about very much. When I do use the laptop, it will be for "heavy duty" writing, and I'll be at a coffee shop (I hear Starbucks will soon have free [enough] Internet Access :-) or a hotel, or someplace where I'll have power and Internet access. For most use, including blogging (thanks TypePad!), the iPhone will be more than good enough; I'm really looking forward to July 11!
By Steve Stroh
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) - via Apple AirPort Extreme Station (802.11n).
As a stockholder in Clearwire, I was disturbed by the quality of service you described. I sincerely hope that you will provide this type of feedback to the President of Clearwire directly.
Best regards,
Chris Laning
Posted by: Chris Laning | June 29, 2008 at 02:57