Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News

Likely No Interference Between AWS-1 and AWS-3 Bands

(1 update - see below)

The FCC has released a report with its conclusions on the likelihood of significant interference between devices operating in the AWS-1 band (receive segment - 2.110 - 2.155 GHz) from operations in the proposed AWS-3 (2.155-2.175 GHz)  band.

As I read the report (PDF) - the FCC engineers concluded "no big deal".

To me, this kind of thing is simple, cut, and dried. The parameters of the spectrum allocations are well-established. If adjacent services and systems "intrude" or "splatter" their signals outside their allocated spectrum, then they get shut down by the FCC. That's the entire point of licensed spectrum - the FCC plays referee, judge, and jury.

This helps answer at least some of the technological uncertainty about M2Z's proposal for a nationwide, "free" Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) system, though questions about the underlying economics, operation / business model remain.

Amusingly, I saw a fair amount of confusion about this story in the general news, that this report was about the recent White Spaces (license-exempt use of vacant portions of television broadcast spectrum) testing that has been conducted by the FCC.

Administrivia note - I'm trying out the use of excerpts in the RSS feed (which will ripple through to the email notification provided by FeedBlitz). Comments pro, or con, will help decide whether I continue to do so.

Update: John Murrell of Good Morning Silicon Valley says it oh so well in this delicious headline, and does justice to the story:

T-Mobile loses NIMBY fight in Spectrumville

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) ; 802.11A/B/G/N Wi-Fi on a MacBook Pro laptop.

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) ; 802.11A/B/G/N Wi-Fi on a MacBook Pro laptop.

802.11Y Approved For US 3.65 GHz Band

Via Dewayne-Net, word is circulating that 802.11Y has been approved.

802.11Y is a standard for the 3.65 - 3.70 GHz band in the US. The distinguishing features of this band are some unique rules that the FCC has crafted for it:

• All systems are licensed, but the licensing is pretty easy; basically just an application / registration form, done online, stating where the base stations are and who the responsible party is, and that the systems will be outside a "protection zone" for the incumbent satellite earth stations.
• Systems used must adhere to a "contention protocol"; essentially - all users must "get along"
• Early users have no inherent preference
• Later users must be accommodated by earlier users

The Dewayne-Net posting pointed to a Wikipedia article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11y. It's well-written, and a better explanation of the particulars of 802.11Y than I can offer, given that I haven't followed the development of 802.11Y.

This sets up something of a battle... as the vast majority of the systems being deployed to date in 3.65 GHz are based on 802.16 - Fixed (the older version) WiMAX, and more recently, Mobile WiMAX. That's pretty natural given that one of the first bands that WiMAX was developed for was 3.5 GHz. Most countries, except the US, have opened up bands centered around 3.5 GHz for deployment of Broadband Wireless Internet Access. (In the US, the 3.5 GHz band was previously allocated to, and is in use by, the US military.

But Fixed WiMAX and Mobile WiMAX weren't designed with contention in mind - they were really designed for use in licensed spectrum where there is no contention issues; one company has been allocated exclusive use of spectrum and therefore doesn't have to worry about contention; they can self-coordinate.

I haven't read 802.11Y to see the particulars, but one issue comes immediately to mind - channel size. (Entirely from memory...) One key advantage that 802.16 would seem to have over 802.11Y is that the former has specific provisions for channel sizes as small as 5 MHz; that's a good fit for the 3.65 GHz's 50 MHz. But (again, entirely from memory) 802.11's "base" channel size, if 802.11Y doesn't modify it, is 22 MHz (2.4 GHz) and 20 MHz (5 GHz); that's not such a great fit for a band that's 50 MHz wide.

It's good to see things progressing, such as new standards evolving, and good to see 3.65 GHz being so actively used, such as Towerstream's recent deployment of Mobile WiMAX technology, using 3.65 GHz, in Chicago. My kudos to Julius Knapp of the FCC and Robert Pepper, formerly of the FCC, who championed 3.65 GHz against considerable skepticism of the "licensed lite" concept. In particular, I'll admit that my fears that the licensing would quickly be "gamed" by unscrupulous speculators, was apparently unfounded.

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); Sprint Mobile Broadband service using a Sierra Wireless 595U USB modem - 1xEV-DO Rev. A on a MacBook Pro laptop.

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 on a MacBook Pro laptop.

Sprint / Nextel's XOHM Mobile WiMAX Commences Revenue Service In Baltimore, Maryland

Sprint / Nextel has finally launched its "XOHM" Mobile WiMAX service into revenue operation in Baltimore, Maryland.

Note that this isn't the first Mobile WiMAX network to commence revenue operation in the US. That honor belongs to some innovative smaller carriers... and AT&T Mobility very quietly launching Mobile WiMAX service in some cities in Alaska.

But now... it starts getting interesting.

Hopefully we'll see some of the national press doing the hard work of going to Baltimore, developing a test routine, and then trying XOHM against the wireless telephony Broadband Internet Access  of Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility... and yes, Sprint / Nextel.

If such reportage happens, what I expect to see is that much of the hype about Mobile WiMAX will be validated, because Mobile WiMAX is fundamentally better at providing Broadband Internet Access. Because...

• Mobile WiMAX is a communications network designed for Broadband Internet Access system that accommodates voice as just another service; wireless telephony Broadband Internet Access is a communications network designed for voice that (grudgingly, haltingly) accommodates data.
• Mobile WiMAX was designed from inception to provide Broadband Internet Access - it's designed to accommodate (though, not exclusively) the TCP/IP protocol used within the Internet.
• The Radio Frequency (RF) technology used in Mobile WiMAX is several generations ahead of that used in CDMA / 1xEV-DO (Sprint / Nextel, Verizon) and GSM / EDGE / HSPA (AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile, most of rest of world). Generally, Mobile WiMAX connections will work better, in more places, more reliably, at faster speeds. It also helps that, again, Mobile WiMAX is designed for data; with that, the Mobile WiMAX RF subsystems can do a lot of "tricks" that  can't be done by the legacy wireless telephony networks.
• Sprint / Nextel was able to build out XOHM's network in that rare set of circumstances - building a new network, doing it right, planning it right, but doing so with full access to any RF communications site through the legacy wireless relationships.
• XOHM was built for Broadband Internet Access - their engineers know what it's going to be used for - lots of fast Internet Access, and they built it for that, especially those oh-so-critical backhaul links that are usually measly T-1's on the wireless telephony networks. XOHM's network took a longer than expected to build in part because Sprint / Nextel couldn't get the high-capacity backhaul links (usually wireless backhaul) in place in time... and kudos to them - they knew that they'd need them.
• Mobile WiMAX has much lower latency - it can set up and tear down a connection in milliseconds (accounts vary as to just how many mS).
• Mobile WiMAX can truly accommodate "always on" devices - seamlessly, continuously, because it can set up and tear down connections so blazingly fast, making the network very efficient, while giving users and devices the experience of being seamlessly connected.
• I doubt that XOHM is going to do transfer limits... at least as clumsily as the wireless telephony companies have done.
• Sprint / Nextel is really going to try some new business models - no subsidy on devices, highly flexible pricing plans, etc.

I'm impressed, to date, that Sprint / Nextel really does seem to understand that XOHM is a classic Isenberg Stupid Network, and they seem to be OK with that. So far they seem to be staying out of the way of their customers.

Wish I was there to try it out for myself.

Now to see if Clearwire is capable of launching a Mobile WiMAX network into revenue operation.

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) ; Sprint Mobile Broadband service using a Sierra Wireless 595U USB modem - 1xEV-DO Rev. A on my MacBook Pro laptop... while sitting in Starbucks with "free" (with onerous terms and conditions, including allowing AT&T to spam you) Wi-Fi available.

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 on my MacBook Pro laptop... while sitting in Starbucks with "free" (with onerous terms and conditions, including allowing AT&T to spam you) Wi-Fi available.

Ricochet's Corpse Finally Stops Twitching

This note posted on the Ricochet home page:

Civitas Wireless Solutions, LLC regrets to announce we will be ceasing to operate the Ricochet® wireless network in the Denver metropolitan area effective March 28th, 2008.

The Denver system was the last gasp of Ricochet, having arranged a very low-cost operating agreement in return for providing reasonable-speed connectivity to Denver-area public safety agencies. This would seem to finally seal the fate, once and for all, of Metricom (which will live on, in name, for a while yet as the licensee of a number of 2.3 GHz spectrum licenses) and Ricochet. And... of course, surviving Ricochet equipment will circulate endlessly on eBay.

I'm reminded of Metricom and Ricochet daily; the wireless geek in me can't help but silently note all the Ricochet gear, both original and Ricochet 2, gear still hanging on streetlights here in the greater Seattle area - chirping away on 902-928 MHz and 2.4 GHz. Someone from the Computer History Museum ought to get busy and find some original Ricochet nodes still mounted on streetlights in the Silicon Valley area and preserve them as historical artifacts (buy, and move the entire pole!)

I wish some technologically adventurous, and prosperous, Amateur Radio Operator with some imagination had stepped forward with an offer to buy up the remains of Ricochet and recast it into an Amateur Radio system (hams are licensed users of the 902-928 MHz band which Ricochet used as access, under Part 15 license-exempt usage rules). It could have been great, but now it's simply too late to salvage anything.

Verizon Wireless Hammers First Chunks Out Of Its Walled Garden

Tuesday on Good Day, BWIA I wrote:

Verizon Wireless hammers the first chunks out of its walled garden   It's shocking, at first glance, that Verizon Wireless has announced that in 2008 it will (finally) offer a "bring your own"  option for devices not sold by, or designed for Verizon Wireless to operate on its network. But seen in the bigger context of seismic changes roiling the wireless telephony industry, Verizon really had no choice. One of Verizon Wireless' previous marketing phrases was "It's The Network", but they're slowly coming to realize is that, from the customer's perspective, It's Not The Network, but rather What You Can Do / What Devices Can You Use... On (A) Network, that matters the most. This development rates a dedicated article, which I'll post later today.

To its credit, Verizon Wireless (VW) has invested heavily in continuous upgrades to its networks, especially moving from 1xRTT (dialup-speed) to 1xEV-DO Revision A (DSL-speed) to offer Broadband Internet Access and services such as V Cast and downloads. But despite those upgrades, my subjective analysis is that the upgrades and the 1xEV-DO Rev. A services haven't turned out that well overall for VW. VW may well have thought "build it and they will come", or that frustrations with poor overall wireless network quality would drive customers to defect from other US wireless telephony networks. While that's a reasonable strategy, it could be that the average wireless telephony customer perceives that wireless telephony networks overall have improved and that VW's claims are merely marketing puffery. But another likely explanation is that people have gotten used to wireless telephony networks not being that reliable overall - they've simply come to expect that calls will sometimes... or often... be cut off.

Cisco Systems To Acquire Navini Networks? (1 update)

Telephony Online reported today that Cisco may acquire Navini Networks.

After attending WiMAX World last week and observing gathering momentum of its rivals in telecommunications and networking such as Alcatel and Norel, it would seem to be a corporate imperative to Cisco offer WiMAX systems as well as offering wide-area Wi-Fi systems.

In acquiring Navini, Cisco would be buying a solid company with good prospects in a burgeoning market with well-proven technology and systems - a marked contrast from Cisco's last attempt at entering the Broadband Wireless Internet Access market with its ill-fated acquisition of Clarity Wireless Corp. in 1998.

(Click below to continue the story.)

WiMAX Television Commercial (1 update)

 

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(Update 1)

This is an AT&T (at&t? Wish they'd make up their mind about capitalization) / Alascom (ALASCOM? ditto.) television commercial for regular, revenue WiMAX service for the Juneau, Alaska area.

A blue box shown in one of the scenes is apparently the WiMAX access device. Given that Alvarion was named as the equipment vendor (Alvarion Press Release, AT&T Press Release), it's likely that's a BreezeMax Si Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), likely operating in the 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service (WCS) spectrum, of which AT&T, then AT&T Wireless, then Cingular, now (again!) AT&T owns extensive licenses for, obtained for an "earlier project in fixed wireless".

Interestingly, the AT&T Alascom WiMAX service wasn't given a product name, but in a tip to that "earlier project in fixed wireless", they could call it Project Angel (the topic of my very first Wireless Data Developments column in Boardwatch Magazine)... in 1997! Yes, a full decade later, and (many!) tens of billions of dollars in R&D, testing, deployments, shutting down deployments, and corporate shuffling, AT&T is finally delivering something like the Broadband Wireless Internet Access services they promised a decade ago.

Unlike Project Angel, the AT&T announcement doesn't offer any hints about voice services. But per the Alvarion description, the Alvarion Si CPE device supports ... 10/100 Base-T for IP data, 802.11b/g for WiFi hotspots, 1 or 2 POTS (RJ11) ports for voice services and battery back up. POTS is Plain Old (conventional analog) Telephone Service. So the capability is there for AT&T to provide "Voice Over WiMAX".

Apparently this is the first of a number of such deployments in Alaska. From the AT&T Press Release:

• The Juneau service launch is the first in a planned statewide initiative to expand the reach of broadband Internet services in communities throughout Alaska by using advanced WiMAX technology.
• Alaska has played a key role in AT&T's overall efforts to develop wireless broadband technologies, with initial deployments of WiMAX-based technology in Aniak, Delta Junction and Petersburg paving the way for today's expanded deployment plans.
• AT&T Alascom plans to expand service availability in Juneau later this year and roll out the service in additional Alaskan communities in 2008. Details on expanded rollout plans will be announced later this year.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

AirCell Puts Wi-Fi HotSpots On American Airlines Flights

This is an interesting development in Broadband Wireless Internet Access on several fronts  (Press Release).

But, first, the AirCell (yet another Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider to be added to the list) Broadband Internet service doesn't seem to be that pioneering. Boeing's in-flight Connexion service, offering Broadband Internet Access, via satellite and phased array antenna systems, operating over the Atlantic Ocean... that was pioneering! Expensive to install and operate (satellites make expensive base stations), and of course doomed by that cost,  slow take rates, and regime change at Boeing, but definitely pioneering!

Second, AirCell and American Airlines are making Wi-Fi service available in flight... not wireless telephony. That's a bit of a blow to the wireless telephony industry - customers on one of the "highest priced  venues" there is (North American airplane seats) can receive Wi-Fi service, but not wireless telephony service. Bummer for the wireless telephony industry. Talk about

Third, they're going to try to make it work with a terrestrial network. My memory is that the spectrum they were allocated for this service isn't very big, so it will be interesting to see what kind of speeds and/or transfer limits they're going to offer.

AirCell Broadband Internet service is projected to be available in 2008, and will also be made available to private aircraft.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

Iowa and Illinois To Get Mobile WiMAX by September, 2007

While most of the attention about Broadband Wireless Internet Access in the US has been focused on the to-be-auctioned 700 MHz band and the political theater of potentially changing the auction rules to accommodate public/private partnerships and "openness", there has been a small trickle of announcements of Mobile WiMAX deployments in the US that (gasp!) are independent of Sprint or Clearwire.

The latest such announcement (press release) is that Solo Direct Connect will deploy Mobile WiMAX service in the Greater Quad Cities area of Davenport, IA, Bettendorf, IA, Moline and East Moline, IL, and Rock Island, IL. Solo Direct Connect is an existing Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider currently using Motorola Canopy systems operating in the various license-exempt 5 GHz bands to provide fixed Broadband Wireless Internet Access service.

Solo Direct Connect will operate its Mobile WiMAX system using 2.5 GHz spectrum in a lease arrangement with Eastern Iowa Community College District. Part of the agreement is that Solo Direct Connect will provide Mobile WiMAX service to College District students, staff, and faculty. (Apparently that covers the requirement that leasing of Educational Broadband Service spectrum have a significant "... educational use of EBS spectrum".)

The vendor behind these announcements is Navini, whose "Smart WiMAX" system is a evolution of proprietary Broadband Wireless Internet Access technology and systems that Navini has been selling for several years. Navini made an easier transition to Mobile WiMAX than most other vendors because their earlier, proprietary BWIA technology incorporated "beamforming", which is integral to successful operations of Mobile WiMAX (especially for the relatively weak signal client-to-base-station uplink path).

Kudos to Solo Direct Connect for taking a non-conventional path in offering Broadband Wireless Internet Access - from dialup, to DSL, to license-exempt fixed-only BWIA, and now full-mobility Mobile WiMAX using licensed spectrum. Impressive indeed for the Greater Quad Cities area to have cutting-edge Mobile WiMAX Broadband Wireless Internet Access service considerably in advance of the rest of the US, and most impressive, from an independent Service Provider.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)

XO / Nextlink Expands BWIA Services To 36 or 37 US Cities

(Nextlink claims 36 cities - I counted 37.)

It's taken a long time - XO Holdings, Inc. has has owned substantial blocks of spectrum for many years now and has been through bankruptcy and back and has very seriously considered, and then reconsidered selling its spectrum.

But XO's new subsidiary Nextlink Wireless, Inc. is really starting to gain traction in offering Broadband Wireless Internet Access services in a large number of US cities now. They claim to be "... the nation's largest deployment of fixed broadband wireless technology to provide last mile and middle mile network access solutions for wireless and wireline telecommunications service providers." With the proviso of fixed Broadband Wireless Services, I wouldn't dispute that claim.

Markets that Nextlink now serves:

• Akron, OH
• Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
• Baltimore, MD
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Cleveland, OH
• Colorado Springs, CO
• Columbus, OH
• Dallas, TX
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Houston, TX
• Kansas City (KS? MO? Both?)
• Las Vegas, NV
• Los Angeles, CA
• Memphis, TN
• Miami, FL
• Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN
• Nashville, TN
• Oakland, CA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Phoenix, AZ
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Portland, (OR? ME?)
• Sacramento, CA
• San Antonio, TX
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• St. Louis, MO
• San Jose, CA
• Tampa, FL
• Tucson, AZ
• Washington, DC
• Wilmington, DE

The combination of XO's extensive fiber availability and Broadband Wireless Internet Access through Nextlink is a powerful one - if a customer can't be reached by fiber, likely they can be reached by wireless.

Nextlink operates in Local Multipoint Distribution Services (LMDS) band at 28 GHz (they claim 28-31, and 39 GHz, the latter two of which were news to me). Nextlink provides speeds of 1.544 Mbps (better known as T-1 speed) through 155 Mbps (better known as OC-3 speed). Nextlink will be losing money on the equipment install if all they're selling is a T-1 to a single customer in a building (the Teligent / Winstar business model).

Nextlink apparently sells its connectivity to service providers and resellers - it doesn't appear to sell directly to businesses. It's instructive that Nextlink is trying to appeal to telecom carriers and resellers who are used to offering T-1 and other "telecom" services, rather than appealing to the Information Technology officers at companies who tend to think of, shop for, and price out their Internet connectivity in increments, or fractions of 10 Mbps Ethernet - 5 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 20 Mbps, 50 Mbps , 100 Mbps, 150 Mbps, etc. In contrast, Towerstream offers customers services like 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps, pitching directly to enterprises and IT managers (though Towerstream does "go low, also offering T-1 equivalent service).

It will be interesting to see how Nextlink's services stack up against FiberTower Corp. (merged with First Avenue Networks, which merged with surviving assets of Teligent, to combine FAN's acquisition of Advanced Radio Telecom's 39 GHz licenses with Teligent's 24 GHz licenses). FiberTower had the "carrier's carrier" Broadband Wireless Internet Access market all to itself for a while, but seems to have settled into a comfortable business of supporting communications hubs such as towers and rooftops.

Little has been heard from WinStar, so I did a quick check and discovered (thanks, Light Reading!) that IDT had spun out WinStar and it's now known as GVCwinstar, and apparently still providing Broadband Wireless Internet Access, though IDT had commenced a sell-off of its spectrum. WinStar rounded out my Big Four of Broadband Wireless Internet Access companies (Advanced Radio Telecom [ART], Teligent, WinStar, and XO Communications) that rose so spectacularly in the mid-1990's, and fell just as hard during the telecom crash.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh