Broadband Wireless — Hello Goodbye

Broadband Wireless — Hello Goodbye

Posted by samc on July 19th, 2007

You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello
- Hello Goodbye

Free Press released a new report that warns of the health of America’s Internet.

The report, “Shooting the Messenger,” (pdf) urges policymakers to focus on the problems that have caused America to fall behind the rest of the world in Internet adoption – mainly competition and availability.

The report’s authors believe the root of the problem to be the “cozy duopoly” of cable and broadband providers that stifle competition and innovation.

The United States has a broadband problem. All of the excuses offered to explain away America’s
performance on the international broadband stage are just that: excuses.

The fact is that many countries continue to deploy and adopt broadband at a higher level than in America. Consumers in these countries pay far less for far more service, and have many more marketplace choices. American consumers are trapped in a duopoly marketplace with no relief in sight. The boasts of “third-pipe” competition from wireless providers ring hollow, as the offerings from these companies are slow, expensive, and extremely restrictive, making them unattractive as a true competitor to the current duopoly.

Incumbents argue that the marketplace will save our sinking ship, even as the water level rises. This blind faith in the market would be reasonable if the U.S. telecommunications market was perfectly competitive. But it simply is not, and it’s high time to face reality.

We rely on the market forces of a duopoly to produce robust cross-platform competition at our peril.

DailyWireless is sympathetic to the call for improving broadband access in the United States. We think broadband access should be a right of every citizen.

But free enterprise and free competition can be powerful forces. Look at the airlines. Look at the new broadband wireless competitors. The cozy duopoly (of cable or DSL) is about to disappear. Forever.

Say goodbye to (expensive) cellular connections. Say hello to The Revolution.

• Unlicensed 802.22 at 700 MHz. Unused UHF television channels are about to be reclaimed. The 802.22 standard reclaims unused tv channels and does not need a license. It’s two-way broadband. There may be dozens of 6 MHz channels available in the UHF spectrum to serve your community. It could eclipse WiFi.
• Licensed Broadband at 700 MHz. These licensed channels feature more power, longer range and less interference. There could be 2-3 national competitors offering broadbrand voice, data and mobile tv in a few years including service from Frontline and a consortium that includes Google.
• Advanced Wireless Service at 1.7/2.1 GHz. The AWS band is a new band primarily for cellular operators (like T-Mobile, Verizon and Cingular). Iit will allow operators to offer new 3G, LTE, and “4G” services.
• M2Z at 2.1 GHz. Using 20 MHz of unused AWS spectrum, M2Z hopes to use the 2155-1275 MHz spectrum band to offer free broadband, nation-wide. M2Z would ensure coverage for 95% of the American population within 10 years.
• Satellite Phones using terrestrial repeaters at 1.7 GH GHz. Giant geosynch satellites from GlobalStar and Mobile Satellite Ventures plan to revolutionize satellite telephony using terrestrial repeaters. Like satellite radio. Only two-way.

• Satellite Phones using terrestrial repeaters at 2.1 GHz. Two providers are expected; MSV’s TeraStar will use hybrid WiMAX/mobile satellite links with Nortel WiMAX technology for the last mile. Craig McCaw-backed ICO, a similar huge geosynchrous platform, shares the other half of the 40 MHz MSS spectrum.
• Mobile WiMAX at 2.3 GHz. Horizon Wi-Com owns 10 MHz of A Block WCS spectrum in Boston, New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington DC, Richmond, and Cincinnati Dayton. They’l provide Mobile WiMAX using 802.16e compatible equipment from Navini Networks.
• Mobile WiMAX at 2.5 GHz. Two national providers are expected; Sprint and Clearwire. Sprint will focus primarily on geographic areas covering approximately 185 million people, including 75 percent of the people located in the 50 largest markets, while Clearwire will focus on areas covering approximately 115 million people. Roaming arrangements were announced this week.
• 3.65 GHz for (lightly) Licensed backhaul. A “Detect and Protect” contention protocol is designed to operate in accordance with the FCC ruling to enable the use of both the restricted and unrestricted spectrum blocks.
• Mid-Band (5.4 GHz) WiFi and 802.11n. The 5.4-5.7 GHz (unlicensed) WiFi band is opening up and new technology (like 802.11n) will provide longer range, faster speeds and beamforming.
• Unlicensed 5.8 GHz WiMAX. Wavesat’s 5.8 GHz Mini-PCI card allows equipment manufacturers to slip (unlicensed) wireless backhaul into a hotspot.
• Unlicensed 60 GHz. The range of Unlicensed 60 GHz is generally under a mile but CMOS chipsets for the 57-64 GHz unlicensed band are getting cheap, fast and reliable.

source : dailywireless.org