Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) News

Broadband Over Power Lines Approved By FCC

Last week the FCC announced a Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will authorize the widespread use of Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL) in the US.

This is a bad... though almost certainly irrevocable decision, though the approval is couched in terms of providing yet another competitive option for Broadband Internet Access.

It's bad because the BPL technology is inherently flawed. Much like ADSL over telephone lines, BPL works by transmitting a low-frequency radio-frequency signal onto power lines. Those power lines were not designed to conduct such signals, and as a result there will likely be widespread "signal leakage" from the power lines. The resulting interference from the signal leakage renders most current types of "High Frequency" (HF) radio services, such as Amateur Radio, overseas shortwave broadcasts, emergency preparedness backup communications links, unusable.

The FCC claims have included protections for such situations in the BPL rules it proposes to adopt. Such rules will be all-but-unenforceable because if interference is claimed, the onus is on the BPL service provider to eliminate the interfering signal. That will prove very tough to do when 1) interference could come from anywhere within thousands of miles of transmission lines or even from within a bad connection within an individual home or business, 2) the interference could well be intermittent, and 3) the service provider claims to offer a competitive service to DSL, cable modem, wireless, and satellite and thus loathe to shut down its distribution network to resolve an interference complaint.

Make no mistake - BPL does work, but the Faustian bargain that the FCC made is the end of usefulness for "conventional" HF communications - analog modes such as SSB. Thus... HF is brought under the influence of "The Darwinian Effect of License-exempt Wireless" where the wireless technology you use has to continually evolve (become more robust) in order to continue to use the spectrum which is growing more heavily used. Such technology already exists - digital modulation modes which can overcome BPL interference, and will, by necessity, become the norm for HF communications if BPL is widely deployed in the US.

Steve Stroh

Comcast + Disney? Sigh...

Comcast (wants to) see itself as a content provider... content seems lucrative. Like "AOL" Time Warner before it, and in parallel with News Corp. / Fox / DirecTV... Comcast seeks to provide unique or "advantaged" content over the pipes it owns, and thus sees something of a bargain in buying Disney with stock.

What Comcast doesn't realize is that such vertical empire-building as it's contemplating is last century's business model, and now obsolete in the era of near-ubiquitous and competitive Broadband Internet Access, especially with Broadband Wireless Internet Access to play the combative "spoiler" to cable/DSL oligopoly.

As we saw with the most interesting devices at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the new transport mode for supplying content to all sorts of interesting new devices is now TCP/IP... which means it can come from the Internet... as in anywhere on the planet... from any individual source on the planet. If you want to watch the Rug Braiding Channel, you can as soon as someone supplies it. If you want to watch your grandchild's high school soccer game you can - realtime or recorded, as soon as someone chooses to supply it. There's no longer a question of if they'll be able to supply it; that question's answered.

So how does Comcast compete with that? Ultimately, it cannot - the "open access" portion of its distribution network will be used by customers to bypass the much more profitable offerings it's trying to push. The choice is stark - create an Isenberg "Best Network / Stupid Network", or try to "fence off" content being delivered by Internet, at which point competition kicks in.

Make no mistake, there will be (and already is) competition for cable and DSL from Wireless; there are a number of very credible, well-funded such efforts now underway, only some of which I mention in this weblog, and even more than I'm at liberty to discuss in the pages of FOCUS On Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Steve Stroh

The Third Killer App For Broadband Internet Access

Over time, I've developed a small ability to predict what's coming... to see a confluence of factors that "ought to" cause a new technology, service, or product to come into being. This foresight is limited to Broadband Wireless Internet Access and closely-related subjects, since that's what I immerse myself in.

So... it's with more than a little satisfaction that I discovered Akimbo, a service/hardware combination that combines video content, transport via TCP/IP, local storage, local hardware, and display on a "conventional" television device. In short, Akimbo is a combination of an IP-based settop box and TiVo-like local storage, with the transport done over any Internet connection in non-realtime. When you're ready to watch some video content, you simply sit down and start playing it off the local hard disk in the unit, on a television device. I stated in a previous issue of FOCUS On Broadband Wireless Internet Access that such a device/service must come into existence; the trends were too strong for it not to come into existence.

This is the third Killer App for Broadband Internet Access; the first is traditional Internet activities - web, email, IM, VPN, etc. and the second is "serious" replacement-for-PSTN VOIP service. It's a major driver for Broadband Wireless Internet Access... because with the above, people will start to care about the quality and use conditions of their Broadband Internet Access service and seek out competitive offerings when the wireline services become too clueless to allow the use of "from-the-ends" innovative services.

Steve Stroh

Copyright (c) 2004 by Steve Stroh. This article originally appeared on Corante / Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

In Other BWIA News... (updated)

Every once in a while I pay homage to those many folks of the opinion that BWIA is inferior to wireline, can't scale, and just doesn't work. But I keep getting interesting stories like this:

Ultravision has deployed Aperto Networks' PacketWave BWIA system in Puebla, Mexico using 2.5-2.7 GHz spectrum. No mention was made of expanion into the 44 other Mexican markets where Ultravision has spectrum.

Atheros is planning an initial public offering. Atheros is, in my experience, the most savvy WLAN chip vendor in the industry. It's not widely known, but the Atheros chipsets are so versatile that they're used by a number of BWIA vendors. In an era where Wireless Local Area Networks are highly commoditized, the conventional wisdom is probably that an IPO for a WLAN chip vendor.

Solectek has been selected to build a multi-island BWIA system by the government of the British Virgin Islands

Flarion will deploy a public safety BWIA system in Washington DC using 700 MHz (repurposed television broadcasting) spectrum.

RapidWave emerges as a new BWIA vendor - "up to" 108 Mbps, "up to" 30 mile range using the 5.8 GHz license-exempt band.

Firetide is a vendor of wireless mesh WLAN products. Put APs where you need them, and the AP figures out how to form a mesh network to get its backhaul. Note this is WLAN, but the concept is equally applicable to BWIA.

Inukshuk Internet will deploy NextNet Wireless systems in all Canadian provinces except Manitoba and Saskatchewan using 2.5-2.7 GHz spectrum (in Canada, the name for this band is Multipoint Communications Service - MCS). An initial trial in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories has reportedly gone very well.

Update: Minutes after I saved this latest entry, I learned of BCL's EXTEND BWIA Network covering much of New Zealand using AirSpan WL4020 equipment; the spectrum being used isn't stated. Like MVSNet in Mexico, EXTEND is a wholesale product, to be resold by other entities.

It's been an eventful week for BWIA news.

Steve Stroh

Yet Another BWIA Deployment - Navini Networks In Virginia

NTELOS will deploy a Navini Networks' Ripwave BWIA system in the Charlottesville, Virginia area, with a planned expansion to Lynchburg, Virginia. Speeds are claimed to be "up to" 1.5 Mbps download, "up to" 550 Kbps upload with range "up to" 8 miles. They'll be using 2.5 - 2.7 GHz ITFS/MMDS spectrum. More details in the Navini press release.

Steve Stroh

FCC Says Free World Dialup Is Not A Telecommunications Service

Very big news this morning. Jeff Pulver reports in his weblog (link at right) that in a 3-2 vote the FCC has declared that Free World Dialup, is not a telecommunications service, and therefore exempt from fees, taxes, E911 requirements, reliability requirements, reporting requirements, CALEA requirements, etc. FWD is something new and unique, not just a different technology for doing the same old thing. The victory is not in being exempted from taxes, etc. but rather formal recognition that services like FWD are something new and different and that it doesn't make sense to try to apply rules, regulations, and requirements that were created for an older type of service in a vastly different situation.

This absolutely, positively clears the way for BWIA Service Providers... or indeed companies not yet in existence, especially individuals, to create a hobby, business, or science experiment involving VOIP and not worry about it being subject to "You're doing telephone company stuff! Therefore you must follow rules, pay taxes, meet requirements, or else go to jail".

Pulver was a real visionary for starting this action several years ago, and understanding that this question needed to be answered for the real VOIP industry (services that aren't involved in interconnection to the PSTN) to move forward.

Congratulations to Pulver and his staff for seeing this through. My applause to Commissioners Powell, Abernathy, and Martin for their vision.

Steve Stroh

News From Jeff Pulver - WiSIP, WiSIP+ VoicePulse, FWD <-> Vonage

Jeff Pulver is an incredibly busy guy of late. I've been catching up on his weblog and here are some of the most notable items that pertain, at least peripherally, to BWIA:

Pulver's WiSIP Voice Over Internet Protocol Over 802.11b (VOIP over Wi-Fi) phone is shipping - $249.95. Commissioned by Pulver, this handset looks to all the world like an ordinary cordless or cellular phone. The WiSIP promises to be far less "fussy", proprietary, expensive, or unavailable for mere mortals to purchase than other "designed for enterprise" VOIP over Wi-Fi handsets. So now you can take your WiSIP phone and roam (theoretically; authentication issues such as "click to agree" redirect web pages need to be addressed) onto any available Wi-Fi connection and be able to send and receive calls. Preferably free; for me, that includes my new favorite coffee shop in Redmond, any King County Library branch, anywhere in my home (coverage from two 802.11b APs), breakfast with my Digital Networking Amateur Radio buddies (quite the story in itself), and if I were a student at the nearby Cascadia Community College / University of Washington at Bothell campus. In short, WiSIP is a classic example of disruptive technology; do it yourself cellular telephony. Chairman Powell, if you thought the emergence of Skype signaled that "it's all over" for wireline telephony, then I can't imagine what you're going to think when Pulver presses a WiSIP into your hand in the coming week.

Until recently, the only VOIP service provider that specifically supported the WiSIP phone was Pulver's Free World Dialup (FWD) system. Now, a new VOIP telephony service provider supports the WiSIP as a client device - VoicePulse. Developments such as this is exactly what VOIP is all about - competion and innovation!

In January weblog entries, Pulver reveals that Free World Dialup and Vonage are conducting interoperability experiements. This is huge... Once the issues are worked out between these two systems, interoperability between other... all other VOIP telephony service providers should be largely a non-issue. Then the real "fun" starts, as the viral effect kicks in. Vonage has every reason to drive towards "direct" (not via the PSTN) VOIP connectivity with all other VOIP service providers. Note that I didn't say all other VOIP telephony service providers; but VOIP services that have nothing to do with telephony - Instant Messaging, Skype, FWD, and others yet to emerge. If a Vonage customer can connect "direct" via VOIP (without using the PSTN), that's money that Vonage doesn't have to pay into the PSTN.

While Pulver doesn't seem to recognize the existence of Broadband Wireless Internet Access (when he mentions wireless, it's exclusively wireless telephony and 802.11b/a/g / Wi-Fi), these specific activities of his are powerful influences on the emergence of BWIA.

Steve Stroh

MeshNetworks Technology Deployed In Garland (Dallas), Texas

NexGen City will deploy a citywide wireless dynamic mesh network in Richardson Texas (near Dallas) for use by Richardson emergency personnel. This is the first such commercial / revenue deployment of MeshNetworks proprietary wireless dynamic mesh network technology (NexGen City is a MeshNetworks OEM). Apparently MeshNetworks, and NexGen City see such emergency / first response users as their primary market; justifiable because in a widespread event, each piece of equipment adds to the capabilities of the wireless network, perhaps by placing temporary standalone nodes as needed. See the MeshNetworks press release for more details.

There are a number of BWIA industry insiders (not to mention wireless telephony insiders... to whom such a thing as a wireless dynamic mesh network is inconceivable and way too much of a disruptive technology) that simply don't grasp that wireless dynamic mesh networks are a viable wireless network architecture; they're simply too invested in traditional point-to-point and point-to-multipoint network architectures. But... that's what disruptive technologies are all about. It's my observation that the BWIA industry is one of the most poignant examples of continuous disruptive technology, especially BWIA systems that make use of license-exempt spectrum.

As stated previously, this is yet another deployment of an innovative Broadband Wireless Internet Access system, of which we'll see many more of in 2004. It will be a very busy year for FOCUS On Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Steve Stroh

Vonage Partners With BWIA Service Provider

Vonage has announced a partnership with Wireless Telcorp. of Grand Prairie, Texas USA (press release) to offer its VOIP services over Wireless Telcorp's BWIA system. This is significant because this is Vonage's first partnership with a BWIA service provider; Vonage has previously partnered with a number of cable modem and DSL service providers.

It appears that Vonage has finally gotten the message about BWIA; to get Vonage to understand the enormous opportunities represented by BWIA has been a hard-fought battle. Vonage was first made aware of the capabilities of BWIA more than eighteen months ago at WISPCON, where a lone Vonage representative became very enthusiastic about BWIA and afterward tried to persuade Vonage to extend its partnership to BWIA service providers. He was eventually released for his "misguided enthusiasm for this wireless stuff". Nice to see that Vonage has a shorter learning curve than the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs).

This is yet more evidence of what I consider a sweeping trend - the integration of BWIA infrastructure with VOIP services.

Steve Stroh

Nextel Broadband Deploys Flarion (updated)

Nextel has deployed their initial BWIA system using Flarion's Flash-OFDM in a marketing trial in Raleigh-Durham / Chapel Hill, North Carolina USA. Continuing in its role as wireless industry innovator, Nextel "thought differently" and deployed a system using the 2.5-2.7 GHz MMDS/ITFS band) spectrum it acquired from Worldcom and Nucentrix bankruptcies, and deploying a system that does not adhere to the "3G" wireless telephony evolutionary path. The system delivers up to 1.5 Mbps, full mobility, and the primary client device is a PCMCIA card (and external modem is also available.) The web site - www.nextelbroadband.com is remarkably informative.

This is the first of what I expect to be many such announcements in 2004 - Broadband Wireless Internet Access systems that offer features far in excess of what can be achieved with wireline broadband or wireless telephony; greater speeds, mobility, more favorable pricing, better coverage, etc.

I'll be covering Nextel Broadband in greater depth in this week's issue of FOCUS On Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Update 2/9/2004: In my research for FOCUS on this story, I found my way to Telepocalypse: Telecom strategy in the age of end-to-end networks (now added to my links at the right), where the current entry is The end of wireless as we know it. Martin Geddes does a great job of explaining why FLASH-OFDM is so superior to "3G" systems as a mobile broadband system (essentially because it's designed for packet-switching and low latency, aided and abetted by OFDM.)

But, Geddes, like most, misses the main point about such systems... not only are such systems great mobile broadband systems, superior to "3G"... but they're more than good enough to displace wireline broadband systems. Therein lies a challenge for Nextel to which they may well not rise... that their broadband wireless system may well be, in the minds of potential customers, superior in price, performance, or availability to wireline broadband systems. Will Nextel recognize that market segment... or will it blithely market what it perceives as a purely mobile broadband service?

Steve Stroh