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AT&T Wireless Drops Fixed Wireless
n8twj writes: "According to this story at Internetnews.com, AT&T has decided to graciously bow out of the Fixed Wireless arena. This is a move that strands 47,000 of its customers, displaces its entire fixed wireless division staff and costs the company more than $1 billion." Iridium, Ricochet, and Sprint's ION are now gone or all-but-gone, too -- it's been a bad year for unconventional Internet service customers.
"Digital Broadband" (fixed wireless) was also deployed by AT&T as a local phone service. People switched over from their local telco to AT&T and now will have to switch back.
AT&T has similarly offered local phone service in my area over cable. I have cast a very skeptical eye towards this offering, not because of the potential for higher cost or lower quality, but because of AT&T's propensity to launch into new services, fail to make money and then cut their losses leaving the customer high and dry.
How very idealistic of you. But, how, exactly, would a non-profit ISP do any better than all of the mom-and-pop ISPs who have gone under, and even the big ones that actually know what they're doing?
That's exactly the problem.
I'm not pushing "non-profit" for any idealistic reasons, I'm only saying that, as a non-profit, the ISP I'm on has very low overhead (most everything is done gratis by geeks), and can get at least some equipment via donations (which is how we got our big Bay dialup switch, I believe).
If you can't do any better, than shut your yap, please.
Um...well, I don't know whether we can do any better. Everyone here seems to talk about "just build your own WiFi network with your friends," but that's got serious problems with it, too. A low-cost, non-profit ISP is the next logical step up from a loose group of geeks with 802.11 equipment and a full-out, for-profit, telecomm-owned company. It gives us some degree of legal accountability (like, say, a way to collect fees), while keeping overhead low.
Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I keep hearing people here either say "hell with wireless, get DSL" or "just set up your own wireless network." Well, I'm asking, "How do we set up our own wireless network, knowing that we need a decent back-end (T1 or better), that such a connection will cost money, and that we'll need some way to recoup those costs while also guaranteeing that when the founding geeks move on, something's left behind for everyone else."
If nobody can explain how to do that , then I'd like everyone here who says "Just build your own wireless network" to shut their traps, as you so eloquently put it.
Typical AT+T Bullshit (damn, I might be modded down, but this is the truth).
Remember NorthPoint? I had a rock solid DSL connection, an employee discount with MSN as an ISP (back when i worked at the RatShack), and 1.3Mb/s down. AT+T came along and bought NorthPoint and left how many thousands hanging? Like I said, nothing new. AT+T has no respect for customers, and will shut off vital services at a whim, with little or now warning (I had 2 days).
Just my 2. I'll stick with DirecTV DSL for now.