Nextel Jumps into Wide-Area Wireless Broadband

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Nextel Jumps into Wide-Area Wireless Broadband

Posted by simoniker on Wednesday February 4, 2004 @10:37PM from the lots-of-bits dept.

Atryn writes "Nextel Communications appears to be entering the world of wireless wide-area broadband technology. A new site showed up today describing their market level trial of Flash OFDM technology. Using a PCMCIA Type II modem card in your laptop or a tethered modem, you can have speeds of 1.5 Mbps (bursting to 3 Mbps) downstream and 375 Kbps (bursting to 750 Kbps) upstream as described here. They also appear to be seeking seeking trial participants, who, when selected, will get the technology free of charge! Of course, you need to be in North Carolina."

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Re:Low latency by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-04 23:05 · Score: 5, Informative

Latency refers to the time it takes for data to travel between sender and receiver, and is very important in real-time applications. Nextel Wireless Broadband's latency, or average delay, is 100ms or below.

http://www.nextelbroadband.com/lrn_about_what_is _w ireless.html
Re:Ahem... aren't they the last to join the party? by vxvxvxvx · 2004-02-04 23:23 · Score: 2, Informative

When I was on Sprint's vision internet service hooked to my laptop, the speeds were much less than I had hoped for. Initially I could pull in around 70kbps down (and something like 20 up, nothing exciting up anyway.) Then I realized I was using a test that mainly consisted of loading images (which on sprint were put through pretty drastic compression giving artificially high scores on tests that used them.) My actual rates were closer to 30kbps, though there was a period of about a month I couldn't get above 5kbps. It's probably one of those things where location is key. Be in the right spot and the service kicks ass.
Re:WiMax anyone by Saiboogu · 2004-02-04 23:28 · Score: 3, Informative

I'm in the first teier of support at Nextel -- We haven't heard a word of this until about 24 hours ago. A dedicated group was trained to support the trial, and if this rolls out full scale, that group would just be expanded (following the pattern of past trials for specialized services, and the current method of supporting data services). Nextel likes to compartmentalize everything as much as possible.
Re:Low latency by liquidweb · 2004-02-05 00:19 · Score: 4, Informative

Posted link is broken.

http://www.nextelbroadband.com/lrn_about_what_is_w ireless.html

Is the correct link which does indeed state:

Nextel Wireless Broadband's latency, or average delay, is 100ms or below.

--
--- Matthew Hill
"To quote the self is an act of the self riteous and uninitiated sub-moronic" - Matthew Hill
Re:Nothing like a company CEO with wireless laptop by mikehilly · 2004-02-05 00:23 · Score: 5, Informative

"Basically i'm asking, what will the price on this be?"
Verizon currently has a similar technology that is in the testing phase in DC and San Diego. The monthly cost for it is $79.99 for unlimited bandwidth usage. I figure that Nextel will have to price it somewhat competitively. Eventually, the price will come down (hopefully) to around $50 or $60 and I might think about replacing my Road Runner with one of the High Speed Wan plans.
Re:WiMax anyone by piper1124 · 2004-02-05 00:46 · Score: 2, Informative

Well I can also tell you a little something about how a business works. You can't rollout a service that doesn't exist yet. Last time I checked (and I am in the wireless business) there is no one making WiMAX gear and I doubt carrier grade HW will even be available within the next year or more. WiMax will only catch on if a big carrier deploys it as who else will carry the cost of the rollout? Starbucks? I doubt it. Besides I also believe that it does say this is a trial not a plan to roll this out nationally. And as others have said, no one has yet shown an app that will be able to justify the cost of this infrastructure. Sure the other carriers have it, but last I checked most of them we hemoraging money on these types of networks. Flame away.
Low Latency was a design objective by threeturn · 2004-02-05 01:40 · Score: 2, Informative

In fact low latency was a specific design objective of the Flarion solution that Nextel are using for this trial. The latency is much better than conventional 2G and 3G cellular systems so should avoid a lot of the problems with TCP performance which happens on must cellular data. As the original poster said the consequences of latency are often overlooked.
Windows only! by Mur! · 2004-02-05 01:41 · Score: 3, Informative

I'm in the trial area and started filling out the form to be a tester, until it got to the system requirements, which were basically Windows XP/2000. I think ME might have been listed. They specifically said they don't support Macintosh or other OSes at this time.

I have to wonder if there's some Windows-only software that they're using for the connection, or if they just don't want the hassle of trying to deal with connection issues from other OSes. Does anyone have similar technology running under Linux?
WiMax only supports FIXED endpoints. by threeturn · 2004-02-05 01:52 · Score: 4, Informative

WiMax isn't competing with Nextel's solution. To quote WiMax's own information page WiMax supports " fixed broadband wireless access systems"
The Nextel system supports fixed and mobile users. Radio systems that support mobile users have to be designed differently from those that only support fixed users. Mobility adds radio issues such as variable fading and doppler shift as well as the need to handover between different transmitters at the edge of cells. Fixed radio systems can't to any of this.
WiMax is competing with DSL and cable for broadband to stationary objects.
VZW by alecks · 2004-02-05 02:02 · Score: 1, Informative

Verizon Wireless already offers wireless broadband. the technology is 1XEVDO (AKA "Broadband Access") and is avail. @$80/mo unlimited. They claim to be ast fast as cablemodems.... Haven't actually tried it yet.

--
The Digital Couture Collection
NDA for them, Full Disclosure for You by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-05 03:51 · Score: 1, Informative

Down to the final steps in signing up, and reading the "agreement" is interesting to say the least. Basically, as with most EULA's I've seen and heard of, they are fully in control with virtually no restraints, and there are added kickers that the user agrees to:
Your Obligations During the Trial Period you agree to use the Service on a daily basis and provide information and feedback as requested by Nextel and its service providers assisting with the Trial. (The Information, which Nextel may collect, access, use, and disclose under this Agreement, is described in the Use-of- Customer-Information section below.) You agree that any Information about the Service and the Trial is Nextel confidential information and you agree that you will not disclose this information to anyone who is not authorized by Nextel to receive this information. With the exception of providing information and feedback about the Service to Nextel and its service providers assisting with the Trial, you agree not to disclose to any other person or entity, any information whatsoever regarding the Service and your use of the Service or any other information about the Service or the Trial.
I suppose I can reveal this since I have not submitted the agreement yet ;-}
Since under the trial Nextel provides (in addition to usual web access) "web hosting services for your creation of a personal website and email accounts", I wonder if they will "sanitize" the personal website and email headers to keep from disclosing "any information whatsoever"...
And this section is really making me hesitate to finish signing up:
Collection, Access, Use, and Disclosure of your Customer Information As a condition to your participation in the Trial, you agree that Nextel may collect, the following information: (1) personally identifiable information about you (e.g., the information requested on the Trial application form, such as name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address); (2) information and feedback about your experience in using the Service during the Trial Period; and (3) any other information related to your use of the Service, including the geographic location of Devices and the manner in which you use the Service (e.g., the websites you visit and the content you access through the Service). Nextel may view your physical location and the times of day when you use the Service. We may also view the websites and content that you access through the Service. [almost sounds as if I'm giving a blanket search warrant!] Nextel will use this information to perform market research for the purpose of developing the Service and enhancements to the Service. You acknowledge that third parties who are necessary to the Trial and the provision of the Service (e.g., contractors and subcontractors of Nextel) may collect, access, use, and disclose your Customer Information to provide the Service and to market Nextel products and services to you.
What do y'all (as we say here in NC ;-) think of these terms? Unusual? Reasonable?
CyaNic
Re:Ahem... aren't they the last to join the party? by flashofdm · 2004-02-05 04:40 · Score: 2, Informative

Magnus - Flash OFDM is significantly better than EV-DO. It has lower latency, higher spectral efficieny, and does not suffer from the near-far problem. It handles doppler effects well and as a result woeks really well in cars. Imagine having a broadband connection that you can use at home, take it with you when you are in the car, use it when you are at the airport or anywhere else for that matter.