2008 will be memorable for me, for...
- A return to pretty good health
- Resuming regular employment unrelated to BWIA and writing (though I wrote... sporadically... here about BWIA)
- The global financial meltdown and the subsequent evolving financial depression
- The end of a dysfunctional US government administration
- The election of Barack Obama as President and a resumption of hope in the US government
- In personal broadband Internet Access, I switched our household from Clearwire BWIA to Verizon FIOS FTTH; FTTH works well :-)
- I got an iPhone 3G (thus becoming, very reluctantly, an AT&T Mobility customer, though I'm glad that my "relationship" with AT&T mobility has been limited to them providing me "Broadband" Wireless Internet Access and voice telephony services, and I send them a check every month).
- The Seattle area received the heaviest snowfall in decades (certainly the heaviest in our 21 years of Seattle-area residency... a white Christmas and then some!
In 2008 in BWIA...
- The 700 MHz auctions which ended up being much ado about very little as the spectrum largely went to the wireless incumbents and despite Google's rhetoric, very little change was actually accomplished.
- As I predicted, Clearwire merged their US operations and spectrum assets with Sprint/Nextel's 2.5 GHz spectrum assets. It remains to be seen if "Clear" can really make a dent in the rapidly-growing market for Broadband Internet Services.
- The unique US 3.65 GHz band picked up considerable momentum when a number of "Tier 1" vendors such as Alvarion and Redline Communications came out with capable, reliable systems for 3.65 GHz.
- Apple's iPhone 3G emerged, providing intense scrutiny on how good... but mostly how erratic the coverage and capacity of AT&T's "3G" (HSxPA) network.
- I think the most significant BWIA development in 2008 was the FCC permitting "white space" usage of the remaining Television Broadcast bands.
- We saw the first halting attempts of Google's Android handheld computing / communications platform. I think that Android will ultimately surpass the iPhone, but it will take several iterations and perhaps a couple of years to get it right.
- Small, independent Wireless Internet Service Providers continued to struggle to achieve any significant recognition at all, individually or as a group. One case in point is Glenn Fleishman's 2008 wrap up article citing a single Mobile WiMAX deployment - Sprint in Baltimore, despite a number of Mobile WiMAX deployments in the US by smaller, independent Wireless ISPs and even a deployment in Juneau, Alaska by AT&T! If Fleishman, who is generally clueful about wireless can't get it right. But the WISPs, collectively, are loathe to do actual Public Relations, so this lack of recognition is no surprise.
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2009 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).
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