No comment... but none needed, really - vintage Dvorak.
OK, one comment:
Sprint once did have a fixed wireless line-of-sight lash-up called Sprint Broadband Connect that was even going to offer VoIP phone service.
Actually, it's Sprint Broadband Direct and it was hardly a "lash-up". Sprint used Hybrid Networks equipment for production deployments of SBD, which was some of the best and most stable gear for this particular use that was available at the time. I've told the story before that it was Sprint that mostly fumbled SBD by loading too many users onto the system instead of spreading users out over their available 2.5 GHz channels in various markets. Sprint was also (in)famous with SBD customers by regularly having Domain Name Server outages; one of the hottest topics of conversation on a SBD customer mailing list was where to find stable, publicly accessible DNS servers that SBD customers could use. It was almost comical - the smallest independent ISPs seemed to be able to operate more reliable DNS servers than SBD.
That said, SBD has been in continuous operation in a number of markets for years, and SBD has just started accepting new customers again. SBD is still one of the largest deployments of Broadband Wireless Internet Access service in multiple markets, total number of users, by a single company.
After all, Sprint/Nextel's gotta keep those 2.5 GHz licenses warm...
By Steve Stroh
This article is Copyright © 2006 by Steve Stroh (except for Dvorak quote). Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged.)
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