Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) News

Good Morning, BWIA - Tuesday

(1 update - see below)

Good Morning - it's (still, barely) Tuesday, October 30, 2007, and welcome back to Good Morning BWIA, a light compendium of news relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Wireless Telephony Walled Gardens Starting To Look Not So Impregnable. One of my favorite and most persistent rants about the advent of Broadband Wireless Internet Access is that once people get used to using the rich resources of the open, public Internet, "walled gardens" such as "exclusive-to-our-network" applications foisted upon users by wireless telephony carriers generally seem puny and undesirable by comparison. A key development in this "struggle" was Apple's recent decision (to date, only informally and ephemerally** documented by Apple) to eventually release a software development kit (SDK) to allow third-party developers to write local / native applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

But now the venerable Wall Street Journal (alas, full text not linkable) as reported by Wireless Week (linkable) reports that the much-rumored Google Gphone is not only real, but may emerge very soon. The story reports that not only would the Gphone include local / native versions of some of Google's applications such as "search, maps, and Gmail", but would be explicitly "open" for third-party developers to write  local / native applications for the Gphone. Hmmm... what to make of the Gphone, Apple's apparent about-face regarding third-party applications on the iPhone, and Apple's overall "friendliness" with Google? One thing's for sure - once the users get a taste of "life outside Walled Gardens", it's a one-way trip, as evidenced by the bounty of software, mostly open source, that's already become available for the Linux-based Nokia N800 handheld computer that "isn't a phone", but now has at least three Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) applications that not only operate natively, but operate over the N800's Wi-Fi connectivity. If it's handheld, has a wireless connection, and you can talk over it... is that a phone? Many... maybe most... might say "close enough"!

Update 1 - This afternoon the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that "Google is in serious discussions with Verizon Wireless (VW)..." over the Gphone. This is delicious, considering how badly VW 'dissed AT&T's partnership with Apple and the iPhone. Apple's going to look like a tame, benevolent partner to AT&T compared to the leverage Google, with its Internet presence and financial might can extract from a partner. (Question - could Google, with its current net worth... simply buy Verizon, outright? That's one way into the wireless telephony industry.)

Good Day, BWIA - Monday

Hello - it's Monday, October 29, 2007, and welcome back to "Good Day" BWIA, a light, compendium of news relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access. My goal is to get it out "pretty much" first thing in (my) morning, Pacific Time, but at times, like today, events in real life conspire against that goal.

Doesn't this just sound cool (to us wireless geeks)? I get press releases... lots and lots of press releases, most of them forgettable, but this one grabbed me. It's from Harris, discussing an upcoming trade show that would be very, very cool to attend - MILCOM 2007, (October 29-31, 2007 in Orlando, Florida) and some of the things they'll be exhibiting:

Harris will feature its Falcon III RF-300M manpack radio, a wideband networking radio that delivers secure Internet Protocol data to the tactical Internet at on-air rates of up to 10 Megabits per second (Mbps). The high data rate - coupled with mobile ad-hoc networking, automated network establishment and maintenance, and integrated security - provides a powerful networking solution. The RF-300M-MP and its software-defined architecture is interoperable with currently fielded radios, and incorporates SINCGARS, Havequick II, and the High Performance Waveform (HPW), as well as MIL-STD-181B Tactical Satellite (TACSAT) capability. The system utilizes the Software Communications Architecture (SCA), and was designed to host advanced government waveforms such as the Soldier Radio Waveform.

Further demonstrating its leadership in tactical networking, Harris also will feature its revolutionary Harris Highband Networking Radio (HNR) for mobile networking applications. The HNR is the first radio to provide wireless, long-range, high-bandwidth, on-the-move communications to the warfighter through the use of a Harris-developed waveform that enables the network to select the best communications route.

Thanks to Wireless IQ Daily Newsletter for the lead for this story.

No Good Morning, BWIA - Friday

Apologies, but medical events have conspired today to make it not possible to produce a Friday version of Good Morning, BWIA. If it's any consolation, it seems to be a very slow BWIA news day, and a quick check of the "usual suspects" for BWIA news echo that conclusion.

I've had enough good response to Good Morning, BWiA that I plan to continue the experiment at least through next week, so I'll "see" you again on Monday.

Oops... almost forgot - Today's Clearwire Modem Weather Report for Hollywood Hill, Woodinville, Washington - Solid 4 Bars.

Leopard Night! Unrelated to BWIA, but worth mentioning - Today is the release of Apple's OS X 10.5 "Leopard". It goes on sale at 6:00 PM local tonight, and the Apple stores will be open late for the occasion. I'll be upgrading our family's Macs in the coming weeks, but I'm not going to rush into it without running maintenance utilities, getting some backups in place (which, once I can use Time Machine, I shouldn't have to worry much about any more). Again - I'm not a Apple or Mac fanatic - I like Macs and OS X because it just works, reliably, with all the stability and power of UNIX/Linux/BSD "under the hood" when I need it. For what I need from a computer system, Apple just keeps doing a good job.

Thanks,

Steve

Good Morning, BWIA - Thursday

It's Thursday, October 25, 2007 and welcome back to Good Morning, BWIA, a light, morning compendium of news relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access.

Really... we won't handicap the other guys... trust us! You'd think  that Qualcomm employees would have things other than work on their minds with the most devastating wildfires ever occurring in the San Diego area. But apparently not; on Tuesday Qualcomm announced the Gobi - a wireless chipset that purports to integrate the latest wireless telephony broadband data modes: 1xEV-DO Revision A for Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless telephony technology, and High Speed  (Download / Upload) Packet Access (HSPA/HSDPA/HSUPA) for Global System for Mobile (GSM) wireless telephony technology. Gobi is intended for integration into notebook-class computers and also integrates a receiver for the Global Positioning System (GPS)... heck, why not? Some thoughts leap to mind. First, if you were the "competition" (GSM carriers... Qualcomm created CDMA) would you be a bit nervous about encouraging customers to buy and use, on your network, a wireless device created by a company who has every motivation to disadvantage your network's technology?

Good Morning, BWIA - Wednesday

It's Wednesday, October 24, 2007 and welcome back to Good Morning, BWIA, a first-thing-in-the-morning* compendium relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access... delivered with a light touch.

At CTIA's Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007 yesterday, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP unveiled its first Technology Wireless Fast 50 list, "a ranking of the fastest growing wireless companies based on revenue growth over the past five years." Included were a number of Broadband Wireless Internet Access companies such as Redline Communications, Inc., Tranzeo Wireless Technologies, DragonWave, Inc., Novatel Wireless, Inc., EION, Inc., Terabeam, Inc., and FreeWave Technologies, Inc. I haven't previously heard of a number of these companies, so I'll enjoy doing a bit of browsing to learn what they do. For posterity, I'll include the full list at the bottom of this article.

Good Morning, BWIA - Tuesday

It's Tuesday, October 23, 2007 and welcome back to Good Morning, BWIA, a light, first-thing-in-the-morning* compendium relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access. Today's edition will be a bit light due to a medical appointment.

Um... We'd be happy to give you some CDMA chipsets, but we're fresh out of cots. I lead off again with a mention, this time (sadly) humorous rather than scathing, from the Wall Street Journal which I again picked up with my morning coffee. Because of the wildfires occurring in Southern California, people are evacuating their homes in fire danger zones and being directed to evacuation centers, one of which is Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Well, some of the evacuees got the "Qualcomm" part of that message, but instead of showing up at Qualcomm Stadium, began showing up at Qualcomm, Inc. Headquarters in San Diego.

(Click below to continue reading.)

Good Morning, BWIA - Monday

It's Monday, October 22, 2007 and welcome to Good Morning, BWIA, a first-thing-in-the-morning (well, West Coast time, anyway... when I started it...) compendium  relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access... hopefully delivered with a light touch.

I occasionally pick up the hardcopy version of the Wall Street Journal along with my morning caffeine fix and I noticed in today's edition that  technology guru "Uncle Walt" Mossberg has delivered a scathing screed against the "Soviet ministries" business model of the US wireless telephony carriers. Mossberg makes an entirely valid comparison between the severely limited choices offered by the wireless telphony carriers and "landline" Internet usage being totally decoupled from one's choice of computer, web browser, other software, etc. To wit:
So, it'€™s intolerable that the same country that produced all this has trapped its citizens in a backward, stifling system when it comes to the next great technology platform, the cellphone.

In my opinion, Mossberg is completely, totally, on-target with his criticisms, down to proactively deflating the invalid defensive spluttering of the US wireless telephony industry. After reading Mossberg's piece, it's difficult to see the US wireless telephony carriers as anything other than outdated, fumbling buffoons.

(Click below to continue the story.)

Post-Forsee, Whither Sprint's Xohm Mobile WiMAX Service?

Longtime readers know that I rarely cover personnel issues of BWIA-related companies, preferring to focus on technology, products, services, and operations. But every once in a while, a personnel change at a BWIA-related company seems to merit discussion here, and last week's (October 8, 2007) the abrupt "resignation" of Sprint / Nextel's CEO Gary Forsee (Google News link - perhaps short-lived) is one of those rare personnel changes that merits discussion.

The reason is that in the wake of Forsee's "resignation", many pundits are calling into question Sprint 's commitment to go forward with full deployment of its announced Mobile WiMAX service, Xohm. While they're right to ask the question... few (none?) have braved a best guess / answer... but I will.

(Click below to continue the story.)

Post-Forsee, Whither Sprint's Xohm Mobile WiMAX Service?

Reprinted from Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

Longtime readers know that I rarely cover personnel issues of BWIA-related companies, preferring to focus on technology, products, services, and operations. But every once in a while, a personnel change at a BWIA-related company seems to merit discussion here, and last week's (October 8, 2007) the abrupt "resignation" of Sprint / Nextel's CEO Gary Forsee (Google News link - perhaps short-lived) is one of those rare personnel changes that merits discussion.

The reason is that in the wake of Forsee's "resignation", many pundits are calling into question Sprint 's commitment to go forward with full deployment of its announced Mobile WiMAX service, Xohm. While they're right to ask the question... few (none?) have braved a best guess / answer... but I will.

Longtime readers know that I rarely cover personnel issues of BWIA-related companies, preferring to focus on technology, products, services, and operations. But every once in a while, a personnel change at a BWIA-related company seems to merit discussion here, and last week's (October 8, 2007) the abrupt "resignation" of Sprint / Nextel's CEO Gary Forsee (Google News link - perhaps short-lived) is one of those rare personnel changes that merits discussion.

The reason is that in the wake of Forsee's "resignation", many pundits are calling into question Sprint 's commitment to go forward with full deployment of its announced Mobile WiMAX service, Xohm. While they're right to ask the question... few (none?) have braved a best guess / answer... but I will.

BWIA-related Events for October, 2007

This is an article from a now-retired blog of mine called Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) Calendar. It was actually published on 2021-03-22, but inserted into this blog for 2007-10-01 (the date of the last update).

We intend for Broadband Wireless Internet Access Calendar to be the most up-to-date, comprehensive, publicly-accessible list of events related to Broadband Wireless Internet Access, WiMAX, outdoor Wi-Fi, and cellular broadband systems.

October 16-18, 2007 - ISPCON Fall - San Jose, California USA

October 21-24, 2007 - MuniWireless07: Silicon Valley - Santa Clara, California USA

October 22-24, 2007 - Fourth Generation Mobile Forum - 4GMF - San Francisco, California USA (in conjunction with CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007)

October 23-25, 2007 - CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007 - San Francisco, California USA

October 23-26, 2007 - WiMAX Forum Member Conference - Taipei, Taiwan

By Steve Stroh

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