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Yeah, the headline should read "US Company Unveils WiMax Like Card", as the Aussie ISP appears to just be buying the card from Navini.

I am using pre-wimax tech thanks to unwired (network provider) and exetel (cheapest internet provider for the unwired network) and one of the main features of wimax is NO line of sight... unwired use navini hardware for this...

It's just a 2.4ghz antenna, big freaking deal.

No WiFi system will beat Canopy (or Trango, etc...).

Better than Canopy: http://www.navini.com/

Better Canopy: http://www.lastmilegear.com/

--e

First, the old and new band plans would help illustrate things. When someone was granted an MMDS or ITFS license, they received permission for certain channels. Typically, people applied for omnidirectional coverage, giving them a protected 35 mile circle. Most markets aren't saturated-- the problem has been consumer acceptance. (Markets have tended to be specialized niche markets. Satellite based DBS arose and answered most of the market need MMDS was envisioned to serve.)

The realignment of the band is underway as of January 10. The stated purpose of the realignment is creating a place for innovative broadband technologies, especially those that will serve rural markets. If you want to apply for a license, here's the web page. (A starting point only.)

Nextel, MCI and Sprint only? That begs evidence. While Sprint and others have a strong presence in the market, they are far from monopolizing anything. In many markets, they have to lease stations owned by others. As to the sentiment that all licenses are gone, and if anything pops up, it will be auctioned, again that begs for evidence. Got to the FCC ULS search, and enter callsign WQBG566. They were granted a BRS license the end of September. (They are in group MD-- commercial, not in the VX educational group.) I'm sure there are more recent grants, I'm just to lazy/busy to track down others. With the links I've given here, it shouldn't be too hard to get tons of info.

It's just that I'm too busy/lazy. Did I mention that? ;-)

If you are interested in the hardware for BRS spectrum, check out Navini's website. Their (near WiMax) NLOS equipment is available for several licensed bands.

Hey again. :) I'm not making claims on behalf of Intel. Just that a lot of people here find it an effective last-mile technology, in a way that Wifi hasn't been able to achieve.

1 Mbps seems about right for the speeds on offer here. Hey, I have 512 Mbps ADSL, and I think _that's_ fast.

Regarding 3G, its an older and more expensive technology compared to Wimax. Here, 3G networks are getting hammered, but Unwired is doing relatively well. In fact, Unwired is planning to trial Voip in April (their modems have a second unused RJ11 port).

Yes, the Navini modems and the Unwired modems are identical.

I found the paragraphs below from this document on their website.


Interference Mitigation and Suppression

With the Navini system, RF power is transmitted in narrow beams that coherently combine at the
intended CPE. Other CPEs do not suffer much interference from the signals directed to others. In
contrast to conventional omni-directional and sectorized systems where a CPE receives all signals
intended for other users, this feature allows each CPE to receive a significantly higher signal-tonoise ratio than conventional systems since it minimizes cross interference.
When using adaptive beamforming for the forward link, Navini's system can be configured to avoid
radiating energy in any specific direction further mitigating interference. If an interference source is detected in a particular direction, the system can create a null in that direction. This is especially critical in frequency bands where other products may be radiating energy towards the CPE and base station.
For the reverse link, when the signal from a certain CPE is to be extracted, spatial filtering or
space-time processing is used to suppress the interference from other CPEs. It has been
demonstrated that the source signal can be completely covered by an interference source and
Navini's system can still compensate and demodulate the signal.

High Maximum Path Loss & Signal Integrity

The biggest challenge to overcome for delivering a zero-install solution is delivering adequate
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for broadband access. The reason old solutions require outside
installation and in many cases line-of-sight alignment to the base station is the inadequacy of
existing technologies to be able to deliver the necessary SNR to an indoor plug-and-play CPE.
Navini solves this problem with MCSB technology: by using a cost-effective, adaptive phased-array
smart antenna at the base station, which produces adaptive beamforming, and coherent combining
of sub-carriers at a specific CPE location. The adaptive phased-array smart antenna utilizes power
more efficiently than conventional methods to deliver significantly increased SNR to the CPE.
Beamforming works in much the same way as a flashlight delivers more light at a desired location
than a conventional bulb, while utilizing a fraction of overall energy (small batteries vs. high
voltage power source). The beamforming gain, combined with diversity antenna gain of the CPE,
eliminates the need for separate custom-installed outdoor antenna/transceiver units.
Beamforming/coherent combining is also done on the upstream at the base station to allow for the
deployment of small low-cost low power CPE.

Really?

Now this and this would have been more news worthy. Pre-WiMax rollout downunder.

We have a NLOS setup running with Navini Networks. However technically advanced or challenging the implementation is, customers are not willing to accept interruptions to their feed. In a nlos implementation as such, the service totally depends on the multipath signals, and we have found out to be most annoying to the customers are, the varying 'strong' spots. Technically, these are caused by changes to the surroundings (reflection path), weather and the antenna power. These can be acceptable to someone with fair knowledge of radio networks, but for the average Joe, having to move his CPE, or even changing its orientation for that matter, becomes a headache. How well can a nlos setup be done in a tightly packed urban area?

It seems to me that it would make a lot more sense if ponied up for a data connection from TowerStream or some other pre-802.16 (WIMAX ) provider, and bridged that over to 802.11. Maybe he could mount the antenna on an industrial strength version of those dorky looking bicycle flags.

I don't know his cell provider, but where I'm from, thats some expensive bandwidth, so $500 a month for T1 connectivity doesn't sound too unreasonable. Be better if there were a Navini provider or someone else that does better with non-fixed signals, but hey, you take what you can get.

Couldn't agree more. Here in Arusha, Tanzania, we get connectivity via a few ISPs with maybe 512kbps VSAT links each, distributed out via cat5 cables running through trees. Aside from the latency and bandwidth to the outside world being horrible, to connect to a server accross town that happens to be on a different ISP your signal has to go up to orbit and back _twice_. I think you underestimate the number of homes with internet these days, though perhaps thats just because Arusha is full of rich expatriots like me.

However, even in population centres, cables can be blown down, vandalized, etc, so reliability isn't very good. A new ISP here recently started a network based on Navini wireless technology, which avoids these problems, though its a bit expensive even for the expatriot crowd, due to relying on proprietary devices/protocol. A wifi-based ISP would require so many access points that they would be viable to the same sort of problems as cat5 distribution, but WiMax would be a great solution for providing broadband inside a moderately sized population centres.

You might want to check out Navini for licensed and unlicensed technologies. I do not know if their equipment has passed the Canadian equivalent of the FCC but they now have a decent platform. Not cheap, but it certainly works.

I live in Arusha, Tanzania. There are three major internet providers in town, each of which buys a satellite uplink. My provider connects users by running cat5 cables through trees etc. with the occasional signal booster. Max bandwidth is around 320kbps, average is 40kbps. They charge $54 US a month.

The second major provider uses Navini wireless transmitters and receivers. I'm told that their users get around 500kbps max, 80kbps average. They charge ~$45 a month, but charge $550 for the navini receiver on signup.

The only thing I know about the third major provider is that they're not available in my part of town.

Navini makes a phased-array wireless solution that is supposedly being tested by NTelos, a regional ISP here in Charlottesville VA. I saw some preliminary documents for the trial: one that showed the coverage area, a roughly circular area with two "pie" slices taken out of it -- essentially shadows cast by mountains near the antenna location. The other document was a map giving signal strength throughought the coverage area produced by a program called "antenna explorer" or something like that. The coverage area was still considerably larger than the DSL coverage area from the same provider. I have not met anyone who is actially on the service. The trial documents indicated that they would add more coverage areas if the trial went well.

Sprint has field trials going using technology from IP Wireless and Navini Networks [Annoying Flash].