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An interesting note that the OP is talking about what LTE WILL do compared to what WiMax is DOING!

How many providers offer WiMax? In Minneapolis, St Paul we have 4 broadband wireless providers. Of them 3 use EV-DO and the other uses EDGE.

Falcon

WiMax 802.16 as I understand it would have no functional problems using spread-spectrum frequency-hopping software programmable radio technology. Just search and read "spread-spectrum" "frequency-hopping" "802.16" WiMAX, most of this technology was available a few years ago, but the Telcos & congress .... Yep, could cause the cable carriers to become the WiMAX carriers to the home for TV, Radio, Phone ....

http://www.mtc.ca.gov/services/arterial_operations/downloads/wireless/Wireless_Overview.pdf
http://www.telecoms.gov.bb/Documents/Fact%20Sheets/Fact%20Sheets_MS%20Word/factsheet16.doc
http://www.bbwexchange.com/turnkey/howrfworks_page_6.asp
http://www.willtek.com/english/technologies/wlan

This has happened in the US, in New Orleans and a few other places. It seems to be quite good at reducing crime, with murder rates down 57% and auto thefts down 30%.

The scary thing here isn't the video cameras, it's the RFID tags. No car thief is going to carry an ID to let themselves be tracked. This is to track the citizens, see what they are doing; to know what their patterns are, to determine if they are subversive. What other purpose can there be?

They've definately got the downtown core covered. Besides, it's my understanding that this is just the first phase of the network, and that the coverage will expand to include the entire Greater Toronto Area, suburbs and all. The Ontario provincial governement has legislated that all homes be equiped with "smart metres" that bill the consumer for elictricity at different rates based on the time of day. Smart metres require two-way communication with the power company, and the wifi network is being put up to facilitate that communication. Being able to sell internet access to people is just an added bonus. Heck, I was hoping that because the network was being put up to satisfy a legal requirement on the part of the hydro company, and it is technically paid for already through my electricity bill, that it would be free. Oh well. It ain't free, but it's advertised to be much faster than I had though and I'm keen to try it. Here's a link that talks about the legislation. It's from Hamilton, not Toronto, but whatever. The legislation regarding the smart metres is the same. http://www.bbwexchange.com/publications/page1263-2 065753.asp

If VDSL can go a lot father than 50 meters then either you know more than the industry and the VDSL Forum does or they are lying. As far as fiber is concerned there shouldn't be a problem with it going the distance, across country or even the ocean. Light signals go a lot farther than electric signals and still remain coherent. Repeaters may be needed over a certain distance but the siugnal should still be good. As for wireless, I don't know where 50 megabit rate comes from. Earthlink will be offering 1mb for $20. That 50mb would provide 50 people with 1 mb each, actually a lot more because not all of them will be constantly using all that bandwidth. However according to Braodband Wireless Exchange Magazine Alvarion offers up to 108Mbps. I wouldn't be at all supprised if in the next couple of years if wireless broadband were common even for the mobile.

If VDSL can go a lot father than 50 meters then either you know more than the industry and the VDSL Forum does or they are lying. As far as fiber is concerned there shouldn't be a problem with it going the distance, across country or even the ocean. Light signals go a lot farther than electric signals and still remain coherent. Repeaters may be needed over a certain distance but the siugnal should still be good. As for wireless, I don't know where 50 megabit rate comes from. Earthlink will be offering 1mb for $20. That 50mb would provide 50 people with 1 mb each, actually a lot more because not all of them will be constantly using all that bandwidth. However according to Braodband Wireless Exchange Magazine Alvarion offers up to 108Mbps. I wouldn't be at all supprised if in the next couple of years if wireless broadband were common even for the mobile.

3G/EDGE looks like a promising technology for the US cellphone market, I'm really looking forward to WiMAX which seems to be implemented from every country except the US (but it is getting closer). As far as San Fran and New Orleans deploying 802.11 networks.. as an information architecture consultant for the City of New York it only strikes me as par for municipal governments to take medoicre advice and implement mediocre solutions.

A wireless ISP locater as well as other good broadband wireless info is available at http://bbwexchange.com/. I was amazed at how many wireless ISPs are in operation in rural areas already. (most are line-of-sight point-to-point wireless)

According to The Wi-Fi Technology Forum - Wireless Internet Access and Global Roaming News 'The Wi-Fi Technology Forum/- Public Technology, Inc. (PTI) has announced that it will hold a national summit for local government officials on the topic of Wi-Fi and wireless technologies this fall in Corpus Christi, Texas. During the 2004 Metropolitan Mobile Wi-Fi Summit, October 13-15, 2004 local government technology leaders will meet to collectively develop the strategies and identify the next steps for implementing Wi-Fi networks in their communities.'

I live in Corpus Christi and have been in contact with key City staff involved in implementing a City-Wide wi-fi network in Corpus Christi (more about Corpus Christi wi-fi project). I have been told by City staffers that I will have access to cover the 'Metropolitan Mobile Wi-Fi Summit, October 13-15, 2004' so get ready for all the meaty details of this event. It will be interesting to interview attendees from other Cities considering the move to wi-fied city(s).

Also found this City of Corpus Christi press release at (http://www.cctexas.com). It may help explain some of the key points that interest the City of corpus Christ;

08/25/04 Work To Begin On Implementation Of Automated Meter Reading Pilot Program The City of Corpus Christi is gearing up for the first step in implementing a pilot program of a new automated meter reading system. City crews and contract workers will begin surveying two areas for the pilot program on Thursday morning, August 26, 2004 to determine the exact scope of work for the project. The first area stretches from Doddridge Street to Robert Drive between Ocean Drive and Alameda Street. The second focus area is bordered by Gollihar Road, Kostoryz Road, SPID and Ayers Street.

The survey will primarily involve gathering information about the number of water and gas meters in the two areas to determine how many of them will need to be replaced or retrofitted for automated meter reading devices. The initial survey is expected to continue through September 10, 2004. During that time, officials ask that residents keep in mind that crews will be visiting easements in the two areas. They also request that citizens help ensure that the easements are accessible by seeing to it that dogs are properly restrained while the survey is underway. The actual installation of the new meter reading devices for the pilot program is expected to begin next month. Officials say that once all the new equipment is in place, multiple meters will be able to be read with one device. And since every meter will be read twice a day, the system will eliminate the need to send out meter readers to handle every discrepancy that may be reported. In addition, customers will be able to go online and access the readings of their meters.

The evaluation of the pilot program should be finished by the end of November 2004. For more information, please contact; Leonard Scott, Municipal Information Systems Department 361-826-3772

Since your email resolves to a florida university, my advice would be to check here. Someone on this list of Florida WISPs will probably be able to help, or point you to someone that can.

Forget satellite, find a wireless isp that will rent you the gear and handle the setup. The complexity of the project is too high to ebay and figure it out yourself, especially for a short-term event. In regards to cost, a minimum expectation is $2000, with a reasonable ceiling being $6000. Your results may vary.

"While that's true, the difference is that in Korea and Japan there were a few large companies that spanned large regions or the whole country. And where the companies were regional, roaming onto other regions was neither difficult nor expensive.

And what do we have in the U.S. today? A few large companies (Verizon, Sprint, Cingular) that span the whole country. Roaming is neither difficult nor expensive in most cases, thanks to intercarrier agreements - if my phone loses its Verizon signal, it automatically picks up a Sprint signal and I don't pay a cent extra to use it.

Also worth noting that for 3G, both Korea and Japan are following the rest of the world this time round and choosing WCDMA.

KDDI in Japan has deployed CDMA2000 1xEV-DO. And look at this (link):

CDMA2000 dominates 3G today, with more than 64.5 million subscribers, or 99 percent of the global 3G market. There are 78 commercial CDMA2000 networks today and 11 will be deployed within in the next six months in Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Poke arround the main site. there is some info there about starting your own WISP and selling service to your neighbors.

I've heard mixed reports about using Vonage and satelite ISP. YMMV.

Good Luck.

Poke arround the main site. there is some info there about starting your own WISP and selling service to your neighbors.

I've heard mixed reports about using Vonage and satelite ISP. YMMV.

Good Luck.

Check out this:
802.16 News
Broadband Wireless Exchange

Problem with free space optical networks is that the highter the frequency, the more prone they are to weather and LOS issues. Yes, they can offer extremely high bandwidth rates, but only up to a few blocks away and certainly not if a bird or extreme weather is within LOS.

RF's going to be around for sometime:

http://www.bbwexchange.com
http://www.bbwexchange.com/wisps/
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/dslalt
http://www.isp-wireless.com

Problem with free space optical networks is that the highter the frequency, the more prone they are to weather and LOS issues. Yes, they can offer extremely high bandwidth rates, but only up to a few blocks away and certainly not if a bird or extreme weather is within LOS.

RF's going to be around for sometime:

http://www.bbwexchange.com
http://www.bbwexchange.com/wisps/
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/dslalt
http://www.isp-wireless.com

Might want to check this site out then:

http://www.bbwexchange.com. I think there might be one or two WISPs in Portland.

More news on the 22mbps USR WiFi can be found here, and the 88W8200 Wireless LAN Baseband Processor information can be found here

Plenty. :-)

http://www.bbwexchange.com/wisps/index.htm

Tons of small ISP's have turned to fixed wireless using DSSS or FHSS 802.11b as a way to route around their local telephone companies and the cable monopolies. Most people will tell you that wireless service is better than DSL and Cable. The only limitations with it really are interference in highly suburban areas and line-of-sight. But even in heavily populated areas FHSS is pretty reliable.

The most popular mailing list for these types of small wireless ISP's is here:
http://isp-lists.isp-planet.com/isp-wireless/archi ves/

An organization created by alot of these wireless ISP is here:
http://www.wispa.org/

and you can find wireless ISP's in your area here:
http://www.bbwexchange.com/wisps/ Some of these WISP's have thier systems attached to Grain towers with their equipment covered in bird shit, but they're doing somethings the big boys aren't, like making money.

shortrange wireless ISPs are old news, I thought?

Look.ca has been doing it in Canada for some time, although they've been in rough shape financially - perhaps they're out of business already?

At any rate there seems to be no shortage of 'em in Canada. I can't imagine this is the first in the US, either.

Now, in order to turn this thread / article into something other than another "groan /. is posting old news waaah waaah" I will posit this:

How long until "real" wireless internet is a reality? I mean not point-this-at-the-antenna-a-block-away, but real iridium-style satellite-driven internet? Those of us stuck on dialup in the middle of nowhere want to know! :)

Should some of my pals all get huge antennae and blocks of ip address, domain names, mail and news servers?

It sounds like a great idea, even windows is ahead on this with XP's wireless lan features [i do believe any PC is capable of using wireless... so why is it one of their selling points? It's just software!]

Could this be pulled off by people with DSL/Cable/Sat connections? Hell, could any old 56ghey serve as an extra uplink?

My point is: Let's turn this out gnutella style. Anyone with Cable/DSL gets an antenna, plugs it in, and leaves it on. He adjusts what percentage of bandwidth he wants to share - and can turn it off whenever he wants. Could serve him because he's got a laptop. He's asleep, he's not using that bandwidth. He's at work, he can't use it there.

Maybe he's neighbor's got one too. Maybe lots of people do, and soon they are everywhere!

Too bad no one would pay for the ISP if their neighbor has his on and open.

I guess we would still need someone to pay for the T1 [or T3, redundant OC-3] and all pitch in. But would it be any cheaper or better?

I guess I'll just have to buy the book. Or wait for this crap to come out from Clear Channel.

Ahhh...cool. :-)

Stuff like some cablecos are doing "you can't get to port 25 except on our routers...nobody can get to port 80 at your home...".

Ahhh, I see. I'm familar with that too. Many of the WISP's I associate with are usually pretty laid back and will allow open access on their networks, within reason. I'm referring to the small, regional WISP's.

For 1Gbit/sec, or even 3-5Mbit/sec? No wonder nobody stays in that business long! :-)

LOL! Actually, that's for a minimal connection which could be 256kbps symmetrical. :-) The 1Gbps is possible via Western Multiplex's Tsunami line but this is definintely not a residential solution considering the units can run, for both links, about $250k.

I agree with no one staying in business very long charging $29 for a 3-5Mbps connection. Many WISP's charge for a CIR of 256kbps to 512kbps with a MIR up to 3-5Mbps, depending on whether they're deploying FHSS or DSSS gear, with the latter being faster and usually cheaper but more susceptible to the WEP security issues we hear about.

If you're curious about pricing, an excellent WISP map I know of is at http://www.bbwexchange.com/wisps/index.htm.

HTH! :-)

BTW, I know Jer at MIA. Awesome guy who knows a bunch about fixed wireless!