[opendtv] Muni Wi-Fi faces tech trouble, analyst warns
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 10:29:29 -0400
Finally an article that speaks some sense about these wireless
techniques.
WiMax, IEEE 802.16, is much more like cellular and much less like Wi-Fi,
in the sense that it's not a LAN. It is a point to point link between a
host device of some sort and a base station. There is no sharing of the
link among several hosts. So in order to get widepread use, the RF range
will have to be reduced to small cells. And the spectrum is allocated on
the basis of frequencies or time slots.
Wi-Fi is meant to be used unlicensed, by anyone. So if a municipal
service is so strong as to enter buildings, that would soon interfere
with private use. In the 2.4 GHz band, the one more suited to
penetrating through or around obstacles, there are only three
non-overlapping frequencies available.
Bert
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Muni Wi-Fi faces tech trouble, analyst warns
Jack Shandle
(07/19/2006 1:27 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=3D190900034
The viability of municipal Wi-Fi projects proposed for several major
U.S. cities has been questioned by a leading wireless consultant on the
grounds that the service will fall far short of user expectations and is
not likely to be free, as initially promised.
Describing municipal Wi-Fi networks such those proposed for Philadelphia
and San Francisco "expensive, temperamental and prone to interference,"
Andy Seybold of the Andrew Seybold Group LLC, warned that there will be
little if any in-building coverage and the service too unreliable for
use in critical municipal functions.
A police officer trying to use the Wi-Fi network during a car chase, for
example, would have to stop his patrol car in order to make a call for
assistance "and hope the car he is chasing waits for him." Seybold said.
Philadelphia's proposed service-which was supposed to be free-now has a
price tag of $20 a month, he said, and even that might be considered too
pricy for a service that is mostly available outside homes and
businesses. Earthlink, which Seybold described as "the most honest" of
the muni Wi-Fi proponents, described its proposed service for San Diego
as being available to 90% of the exterior walls of 90% of the buildings,
he said.
In some instances, mobile WiMAX (as specified in the IEEE 802.16e-2005
standard) has been proposed as part of municipal Wi-Fi networks. See
What is mobile WiMAX.
Seybold also had a dim view of mobile WiMAX's aspirations to become a
major wireless technology but foresees its use in niche markets. When it
is commercially available in mid-2007, mobile WiMAX will have a
performance edge over competing cellular technologies, Seybold said, but
it will be short lived.
By comparing the respective technology roadmaps of mobile WiMAX and 3G
cellular, Seybold concluded that mobile WiMAX's advantage-which is
mostly due to its use of multiple antenna (MIMO) technology-will vanish
in three years, which is not nearly enough time to recoup the level of
capital investment required for mobile WiMAX to compete, as some WiMAX
proponents have argued, for the existing cellular market.
Seybold's remarks came at a meeting of the Wireless Communications
Alliance (WCA), a Northern California non-profit group of companies and
organizations dealing with wireless technologies.
Another analyst on the panel did not object to Seybold's dim view of the
success of municipal Wi-Fi but she did have a more optimistic view of
mobile WiMAX's future.
While agreeing that mobile WiMAX would have trouble gaining traction as
a cellular alternative in the U.S., Monica Paolini, founder of Senza
Fili Consulting, said in developing parts of the world where a complex
cellular infrastructure does not exist, mobile WiMAX is a viable
alternative.
Paolini listed India, Latin America and Eastern Europe as being fertile
ground for mobile WiMAX to take root. She also argued that even in
developed countries mobile WiMAX could easily be used as an overlay of
cellular networks for operators to provide additional bandwidth for
video and other high-bandwidth services.
Comparing the cellular and mobile WiMAX technology roadmaps, Paolini
came to a somewhat different conclusion that Seybold: The two
technologies are converging in terms of their constituent technologies.
Both are on the road to adopting OFDMA for signaling and an IP core, she
said.
All material on this site Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights
reserved.
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