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Earthlink Launches Fixed Wireless ISP Service
rkischuk writes: "As an alternative to cable modem and DSL, Earthlink is launching "High Speed Internet Fixed Wireless Access". You lock a 14" square dish onto your home, and all that comes inside is the network cable that connects directly to your NIC. The connection is transmitted over radio waves, probably to transmitters mounted on local towers. Service seems comparable to DSL in both price ($42.95 / month) and speed (1.5 Mbps downstream, 128 Kbps upstream). No idea on the latency. Service is currently only available for pre-order in the Atlanta area. This seems to finally get the behemoth cable and phone companies from trying to monopolize such services, but brings the wireless providers into the mix (it's probably their cell-phone towers)."
Sprint recently abandoned both it's ION offering as well as it's MMDS (wireless) product.
Given the strong ties between Earthlink and Sprint, I suspect this is the same product, only (perhaps) with a better marketing and support campaign.
Especially for rural 'last miles' MMDS remains the only truly practical alternative to, well, anything else.
mho.net, one of the oldest isp's in denver, colorado, has been providing that type of service for close to a year now. Works great for me! I get a pretty well rounded connection, with 1.2mb down and about 512kb up.
just my 2cents
...with a local ISP using 802.11(b?) equipment and parabolic antennas. They've been doing it for quite a while (relatively speaking) and apparently have been having good luck with their setups. At $48.95 for 500/500k it's comperable with cable and DSL ($50 each at 768/128 and 1500/128 respectively). 500k incoming isn't very exciting these days but 500k out is faster than any other consumer system available in the area.
Latency should be decent and I don't have to deal with the fools at SBC PacSmell. Those jokers took a week to tell me it would be a month before I could get a phone when I moved into my current house. My roommate's moving out and they say they're "required by law" to shut down the DSL service, turn off the line, then turn the line back on and set up DSL service again. Only 5-6 weeks. Can't say I'll miss dealing with them. Our cable company is still sticking to their moronic "no servers" policy so they're out of the running, too, despite their excellent startup time of 2-3 days.
One of these days, the Bells and the cable companies will figure out that alternative connections are showing up all the time.
I've been on the verge of getting a similar service that StarnetWx just started in Chicago but that offers 2 Mbps both up and down for $40-50/mo. They seem to have a smaller dish (12" square) than the one mentioned in the story but otherwise seems to be the same technology.
.. so far his best offer is to put the antenna in the balcony but Starnet isn't sure if I'll get enough signal there.
I'm still working on convincing my landlord to let me install it in my apt
I have two of these, one at home and one at work. Due to their creative billing capabilities, I only pay for one of them. :-) The high cost of end-user equipment is offset by a one-time payment (non-refundable) of ~600 USD. This gives you 5 or 10 meters of high-gain RF cable, a choice of three antenna sizes (medium, large and Mr T), a Breezenet SA-10 Station Adapter and some clamps to put the antenna on your TV antenna pole, chimney, wherever. The monthly fee is $30 for up to 3 Mbps (this is the maximum radiolink bandwidth, you have to be pretty colse to a tower to get that, I typically get 2 at work and 1 at home (longer and there's a tree in the way. Now, where did I put that chainsaw?).
Authentication is done by logging in to a webpage (DNS and traffic within their network works when logged out, but port 80 is basically blocked without the login. This means that I can ssh or do a Terminal Server login from home to work even if both networks are logged out). They log you out for inactivity, but a ping -i 600 wherever.com seems to keep it alive. The DHCP lease is for 24 hours and I have lost my (public) IP three times in a year, all of them due to major maintenance of the login servers.
This all works beautifully, except for Telenordia's inability to manage 24/7 server capabilities. I get some rain fade and snow issues (especially with the large, wet flaky, kind) but no fried sparrows and no other major issues - both my kids have just one head each. :-)
Standard disclaimer: Your bandwidth may vary.
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