... conspired to write a really excellent article in IEEE Spectrum Online - When Spectrum Auctions Fail.
Not coincidentally, the lawyer, the engineer, and the writer are actually the same person, Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth PLC.
In the article, Lazarus takes great pains to clearly explain (great writing!) the history (good legal research!), and technology (great engineering background!), of fixed microwave links, and wraps the article up neatly, with all the history and technology, why it simply doesn't make sense to auction off entire bands that are really only suitable (at the moment) for fixed links, to a single entity.
I rarely say this here given how laughably bad most writing of late has been about wireless technology, especially writing about fixed wireless technology and legalities (and lack of historical context)... but...
I highly recommend Lazarus' article. Lazarus does an excellent job, including a very realistic treatement of the utility and usability of the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz license-exempt bands in fixed wireless usage (this is rarely handled well, accurately, or fairly). And Lazarus gets it exactly right (this is really, really rare) in discussing the little-known 60 GHz band:
Radio waves around 60 GHz suffer an even greater problem: They are absorbed by oxygen molecules, and to a 60-GHz signal, clear air will look like dense fog. But systems in this band are still used, for instance, to connect nearby buildings on a single campus. Here, the atmospheric attenuation can be considered a feature rather than a bug, because it allows the same frequency to be employed a short distance away without risking interference.
One trivial point off for Lazarus not pointing out that the wavelength of a 60 GHz signal is about the size of the cross-section of a pencil, and therefore doubly hard to interfere with (or intercept). One other trivial point off for not discussing the (now) comedic (probably not so funny to investors) antics of the failed predecessor companies of FiberTower (which Lazarus mentions briefly). Two such failed companies that come readily (and laughably, painfully) to mind from those days are Teligent and WinStar. But even online articles have length limits, so perhaps not mentioning these two was the fault of an editor :-)
Steve Stroh
Dish Networks Really Wants To Buy Sprint
It's not googleable (shame on WISPA for poor coverage of their own event) but if you listened carefully during Charlie Ergen's talk at WISPAPALOOZA 2011, it was obvious that Dish Networks was going to be getting into some kind of Broadband Internet Access. Charlie was surprisingly open that Dish was seeing the effect of "cord cutting" and inroads of Netflix, and Charlie invited the attendees to "talk to us about what we could do together".
Flash forward a year or so - December 2012, and Dish gets its hands on some spectrum. So, now that they have some spectrum, they're a now a credible player in Broadband Wireless Internet Access... right? Well, um, no. The pro's snickered, knowing it's HARD to build terrestrial wireless infrastructure on a national scale. Oh, and it's expen$ive! Sure, you can just pull out the money gun and point it at the largest tower companies and fire away... but that gets you the SITES. That's all. Then there's all of the backhaul. And the equipment choice(s). And the Installation. And the Maintenance. And the Network Operations Center. And the Security. And.. And... And...
In short, it's really, REALLY different than the "simple"* bent pipe model of 99.9% of what Dish does. Dish transmits up to the satellites, customers passively receive from the satellites. Scaling from 1 to infinite is pretty possible (assuming you can handle getting and keeping the installers, maintaining minimal installation standards (hint - running satellite coax through a rain gutter is a bad idea - true story from my Father-In-Law's latest Dish installation), and of course the billing issues (always a challenge given the recent cord cutting frenzy causing a lot of churn).
So today's announcement of Dish really wanting to buy Sprint makes total sense. In buying Sprint, Dish buys an existing terrestrial Broadband Wireless (Internet Access) infrastructure. They also buy expertise in managing a terrestrial infrastructure. They even buy a footprint of retail stores where they can co-sell wireless phones and satellite television service. And theoretically, they can blend television via satellite and television via Broadband Internet.
Softbank is good, but Charlie Ergen is meaner, hungrier, and a better dealmaker. I'm betting on Charlie to win in the end.
* Yeah, I know. Not really simple at all. But simpler than trying to build and operate a national footprint terrestrial wireless network.
By Steve Stroh
Personal note - it's good to be back. I've missed all of you.
Posted by Steve Stroh on April 15, 2013 at 06:23 in BWIA Industry Commentary, BWIA Industry Developments | Permalink