Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) News

GDBWIA 2008-02-29 Sprint Declares Loss Greater Than GDP Of Oman

Good Day, BWIA (GDBWIA) is a light compendium of news, items of interest, irreverent commentary, and occasional light analysis relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (including WiMAX, public access Wi-Fi, etc.).

And we say goodbye to my least favorite month in the calendar.

Things That Get Me Excited About BWIA Today? Excited... that's not the right word... stunned gets closer. I've been outspoken about Sprint Nextel's problems as context for it to be near-impossible that Sprint Nextel could widely deploy it's Xohm Mobile WiMAX service in its 2.5 GHz spectrum in parallel with its existing CDMA wireless telephony network on 1.9 GHz (leaving only the terms and conditions of the surrender of their 2.5 GHz spectrum to Clearwire). But for Sprint Nextel (I guess I'll start just calling them Sprint now that they've essentially written off the value of acquiring Nextel) to declare a US $29.5B loss yesterday?!?!?! That simply strains credulity. Sprint lost more money than the entire country of Oman's 2007 GDP (link - right column, CIA Factbook)!!!

Then there's Sprint's "we'll make up the losses in volume" $99/month "everything" plan. You can read the PR spinmeistering, but (yesterday) try going to Sprint's web site and looking up the actual particulars of the plan as if you might possibly become a new customer, and you find... nothing about the new plan.  Today, there's an ad, and I still can't really parse out the particulars. Do you get a phone that bridges the Sprint CDMA voice, 1xEV-DO Internet access, and Nextel voice networks? And get access to everything, including (falsetto trembling voice...) exclusive Sprint video? Yawn. Another thing leaped out at me - Sprint's "Everything" offer expires at the end of May. Double Yawn - this is business as usual in the wireless telephony industry, and this kind of jerking around of the customers with teaser offers that expire will just drive customers to true flat-rate offers of Internet and voice. Obligatory BWIA - that this incredible declared loss for Sprint seals the fate of Xohm... how could they conceivably build out a Mobile WiMAX nework (that would have any scale) when Sprint is scrambling to "keep going" by using a US $2.5B loan?

Good Day, BWIA - Wednesday 2008-02-27 Stelara Wireless Reincarnates Monet Mobile Wireless Business Model

Good Day, BWIA (GDBWIA) is a light compendium of news, items of interest, irreverent commentary, and occasional light analysis relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (including WiMAX, public access Wi-Fi, etc.). As always, thanks for being "one of the five".

Things That Get Me Excited About BWIA Today? I'm late to the party on taking note of Stelera Wireless LLC, a Broadband Wireless Internet Access Service Provider (BWIA SP) using new Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum (1.7 / 2.1 GHz) to provide Broadband Internet Access in rural areas. They're using HSPA - Broadband over Wireless Telephony based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology.

Good spectrum - it will eventually be well-supported because it's adjacent to the heavily used (worldwide) 1.9 GHz "PCS" wireless telephony band and there were bigger players like T-Mobile USA that bought in. That means Stelera will be able to buy systems and devices off-the-shelf. Bad news... they'll be buying them from very large vendors like (Om Malik reports) Nokia Siemens Networks who are more used to dealing with, and pricing their systems, for very large wireless telephony carriers. Let's hope that the principals of Stelera have done ample due diligence from a previous high-profile incarnation of this same business model - Monet Mobile Networks. Both chose to use wireless telephony spectrum for purely Broadband Internet Access services in rural markets. Monet ultimately failed when they couldn't achieve sufficient scale to be able to afford the overhead of having bought licensed wireless telephony spectrum.
 

The U.S. Army is Testing Mobile WiMAX

This draft article is from a small now-retired blog called Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX Government / Military. (I'm not big on brevity for titles.) This article was written on 2021-03-16, but inserted into this blog for 2008-02-27 (the date the draft was last updated). The link is kept as original to allow searching the Internet Archive should you want to see the link as I did when I wrote this.

The U.S. Army is testing Mobile WiMAX. They used three Samsung base stations and mounted them into Humvees, connected to a satellite link as the backhaul. It is believed to be the first time a satellite link was used with WiMAX. Military forces can set up a satellite dish and pop up a WiMAX antenna next to it to form “a bubble of WiMAX” around a particular area or a convoy, according to testers.

 

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh
Bellingham, Washington, USA

GDBWIA Monday - Been Gone Awhile

Good Day, BWIA (GDBWIA) is a light compendium of news, items of interest, irreverent commentary, and occasional light analysis relating to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (including WiMAX, public access Wi-Fi, etc.).

Been Gone Awhile  Apologies! Did you miss Good Day, BWIA? The good news is that I wasn't sick (for a change), just busy. Daily production of GDBWIA resumes today, but this edition will be a bit light as I get back in the groove. Thanks for being "one of the five".

Things That Get Me Excited About BWIA Today? Besides the Ruckus Wireless MediaFlex 2835 (below), nothing much from it being a slow BWIA News day. Happens sometimes. But in the next few days, I do need to do a roundup of interesting stuff that happened during the hiatus.

Qwest for Broadband Wireless Internet Access

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9877496-7.html?tag=newsmap

without their own spectrum

3.65 ghz band would get them back in the game

rural areas are the biggest - not suitable for dsl

ruckus unit

clearwire already has a reseller agreement

don't look at voice as a moneymaker - try to preserve it as a reason to keep landlines. they can do the same landline mobile number which no one else does (easily); otherwise there's no reason to keep a landline.

What Do We (Think We) Know About Sprint Nextel Plus Clearwire For 2.5 GHz Mobile WiMAX In Early 2008?

The mainstream media is abuzz this past week with rumors and "sources" stating that an arrangement between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire is "close" to fruition.

I've been saying that there will be such an arrangement - that it is inevitable, for months now.

To me, the "if" isn't in question. The only questions are the details about branding, customer ownership, ownership of spectrum and network, and when the arrangement will be consummated.

So, let's try to parse out some of those details from the mainstream media.

MSM datapoint: The "arrangment" will be embodied into a new company that will take control of both Sprint Nextel's and Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum. (Source - Sprint, Clearwire Near WiMAX Deal)
SKS analysis: This is another opening feint. 2.5 GHz / Mobile WiMAX is a distraction for Sprint from what its managment, majority of personnel, and its investors view as its core business - wireless telephony and Broadband Internet Access over Wireless Telephony. Clearwire will come to dominate the new company. Also, neither company is actually going to "give up title" to itss respective spectrum - it's just too scary to contemplate "letting go" of spectrum assets.

The Inevitability Of Clearwire Plus Sprint Nextel 2.5 GHz Spectrum

(Background)

I've been predicting that a arrangement between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire that effectively puts Sprint Nextel's extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum under the control of Clearwire, which can then go forth and deploy a truly national Broadband Wireless Internet Access service using Mobile WiMAX technology... is, simply, inevitable. All that remains is to work out the details of the arrangement that will preserve some profit / equity / branding for Sprint Nextel and some face-saving rhetoric for Sprint Nextel's abysmal failure to capitalize on the incredible opportunity of combining Sprint's and Nextel's (conglomerated from Worldcom and a few other companies) 2.5 GHz spectrum and more-than-good-enough technology (Mobile WiMAX) finally being available.

My most direct prediction of this was made December 27, 2007 - (Prediction) Clearwire Takes Over Sprint Nextel 2.5 GHz Spectrum - I don't see any way in which this isn't inevitable. Clearwire has the vision, but they'll need a lot more money, and although it's a bit nuts, Clearwire apparently still isn't deploying Mobile WiMAX in new markets. Sprint Nextel will struggle just to rationalize its Nextel 800 MHz conversion and its Sprint 1.9 GHz CDMA networks and streamline their overall businesses - it simply can't afford, or significantly fund Mobile WiMAX on 2.5 GHz spectrum - even if the strident shareholders were supportive, which they're not.

Summarized neatly on January 22, 2008 -  Sprint Nextel reductions - you know there has to be a BWIA angle -  ... My prediction stands that Sprint Nextel will essentially spin out Xohm and its 2.5 GHz spectrum into a joint venture with Clearwire, or dump it outright. There's simply too much corporate inertia at Sprint Nextel - invested careers and tribal knowledge, technological infrastructure built for "the core competency of a telephone company is to generate billable events", and the external pressures of "the good old days of the cellular business" for a Mobile WiMAX service, with its radical distillation of "telecommunications" into "Stupid Network", for Xohm to gain any significant traction within Sprint. ...

Postings On Independent Clearwire Blog Now Caught Up

Apologies for the lack of postings here on the Independent Clearwire Blog these many months since I debuted it back in July.

It wasn't that I wasn't writing about Clearwire - I was; quite a bit, in fact... just not here. I couldn't break the habit of including Clearwire coverage in my main blog - Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News. There was also my protracted health issues in the latter half of 2007, which are fortunately behind me now.

Today I ported over all the stories and mentions of Clearwire (and Sprint Nextel, when relevant by association with Clearwire) from Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News to postings here on Independent Clearwire Blog.

Today I Use Only Clearwire Service For Home And Office

It's embarrassing to admit, but I hadn't been using my Clearwire connection very much since I signed up last year. It's a long and convoluted story about why I couldn't get my Clearwire modem connected into my household LAN, but now that's been corrected, and earlier today I "cut over" completely from pretty good Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) from a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) who I prefer not to name. (The wireline service is Verizon, but for any service issues, I deal with the ISP which was one of the primary attractions of working with them.)

A brief note - the Clearwire modem is just that - a modem. There's no router built into it. If there was, it would have been easy to set up many months ago. So if you're going to feed a household LAN from your Clearwire modem, you'll need a Network Address Translation (NAT) router.

When I have used it sporadically, the Clearwire modem has been totally plug and play. Unlike all the silliness that you have to go through with some DSL and cable systems about using their software to set up your system (which, again, if you're going to share out the connection, you have to "fake out" or later undo) and set a specific hostname, or set up Point To Point Protocol Over Ethernet (PPPOE), the Clearwire modem is, again, plug and play - just plug it in, and if your computer or router is set up for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), it'll just work.

Why I Started Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) Backhaul

This is an article from a now-retired blog of mine called Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) Backhaul. It was actually published on 2021-03-15, but inserted into this blog for 2008-02-14 (the date of the original article).

Welcome to Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX Backhaul!

There's an old story, which I'll paraphrase here, that I think is applicable.

Amateurs in war theory talk deeply of battles; professionals in war theory talk deeply of logistics.

The analogy in Wireless Communications is that those without a deep knowledge talk only about Wireless Access (the sexy part); those with deep knowledge talk equally of Access and Backhaul; you simply don't have the former without the latter.

Backhaul is hugely important, of course, and it's always been of interest to me, and I've always written about it in the context of an integral part of the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry. I started BWIA Backhaul on the advice of an industry colleague. I was explaining the Stroh Publications LLC portfolio of Broadband Wireless Internet Access sites, they said "Well... you should be covering Backhaul too!"  The colleague went on to say that there was little... and poor... coverage of the "unglamorous" role of Backhaul as part of... not just Broadband Wireless Internet Access... but all of Wireless Access.

And with that suggestion, and the ability to "self-franchise", I shall do so. What's fascinating to me is that Backhaul is undergoing enormous change. Not only is Wireless Backhaul proving (rapidly, aggressively) to be superior to wired Backhaul, but the technology is morphing rapidly. Point-to-multipoint backhaul is becoming common, as is Mesh Networking. New spectrum is being used for backhaul such as 3.65 GHz.

In short, it's an exciting time. I look forward to your comments on individual articles.

One disclaimer - in making the title of this site Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX Backhaul (the original title), I'm not describing that Wireless Backhaul always is, or should be, WiMAX. It usually isn't, and often shouldn't be or doesn't matter (as a point-to-point link, as long as the radios are matched, it can be nearly anything, including totally proprietary.)

Thanks,
Steve

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2008 by Steve Stroh. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-03-15