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Nextel Jumps into Wide-Area Wireless Broadband
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."
Also important is the low latency of the service. I've tried one of the high-latency ones (satellite based), and it's really not worth it - good for downloading large files, and for web-browsing, but useless for interactive use.
No-one ever seems to mention the latency though, just the bandwidth...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
It seems now that if city-wide wireless broadband can be achieved, it would mean much of a doom to 3G technologies, such as UMTS and CDMA-2000.
Sure, 3G is beginning to be implemented in some countries; Japan, HK, UK, and Australia, etc; but with these wireless broadband services becomes easily available and cheap, consumers would naturally choose the latter.
It would mean doom to my job as well, as I am acting support to some equipment used by a 3G operator in HK; 3G is unbelievably complex and expensive to implement just for two objectives: faster packet data, and enough bandwidth for a video call (Circuit-switched data). Now, the only obstacle I see in this wireless broadband technology to totally killing 3G is circuit-switched reliability.
3G has a much wider circuit-switched domain compared to GSM, and this is important for applications that require low latency and delay: video calls.
In any system, latency can be reduced by introducing QoS into the system by prioritizing packets according to their prescribed quality level. Another sure way of reducing latency is to dump enough bandwidth into it.
When bandwidth becomes widely available just like what's available in land transmissions (perhaps reach ATM-class quality and speed?), 3G technology will be down the drain.
If current trends continue, this is happening fast!
I wonder if they'll try to squeeze money out of us by charging us for "romaing?" Also, I'm sure that privacy advocates will be concerned about the ability of Nextel or any other provider to track their customers and that information will inevitably be shared with the FBI, et al.
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Do you think that the people who are in charge of rolling this out are aware of WiMax? Were they 6 months ago? This effort has probably been in the works for about 6 months (that's a SWAG based on what I can remember about the abandoned data wireless rollout at UUNet/WCOM in 2000).
I really hope they are training the Tier 1 and 2 support staff on this before they roll it out (which is something that tends to be overlooked).
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
I know a guy working through his MBA, sitting in class hooked up to the net wireless through through Verizon Wireless. He's getting a minumum of 144kbps both ways most of the time. Considering that most of the US and world is connected vi dial up, that a bit improvement. He says it works well in most areas, but it has trouble if you're moving, such as while on the train. He said he does get the burst speeds in many situations, but the average speed is quite acceptable (and he's used to a oc-3). Cingular has this too, as well as, Sprint and At&t wireless. The nextel specs cliam to be high, as the other web sites I cites also make their claims, and they all charge premium prices for this service. Given Nextel's pricing, this will also be at a premium rate.
I just don't understand how the last big name to get in the game is considered news. Was their hyped numbers are bigger than the other hyped numbers? Or was it just general ignorance about the market.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
That seems about the same stats as the EVDO card I've been using from verizon for months now. Basically it is a 3G CDMA-2000 add on that offers bursts to 2Mbps down. I reliably get 600Kbps down and 150 Kbps up. Then when your not in the DC or San Diego footprint you get 144 Kbps bursts up and down.
I thought 3G was dead (who needs any of these things in a phone, really), but EVDO (EVolution Data Only) convinced me this is what it is really for. When I'm stopped in traffic I can access the net. When I'm waiting for the girls to finnish shopping, I can access the net. And on, you get the idea. Hell, I'm even doing some video conferences over this card.
Check out their "Features" list under the Personal category at http://www.nextelbroadband.com/pu_features.html
I find it amusing. They say that is it secure because it's proprietary technology on a licenced radio service so no one can "gain unauthorized network access". I have several radios and scanners that can certainly receive frequencies that this operates on, if not transmit as well. One does not have to "gain unauthorized network access" just to listen.
The closing sentence basically says "enjoy our service but take your own precautions about secure access."
I'm not saying it's insecure (what is secure, truly!?). I do take a dislike to the reassurance of security with the disclaimer that any security should be provided by yourself buried in the rhetoric.
Interesting to read this:
"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."
I found this funny:
"Nextel and its service providers shall have no
liability under this Agreement for failure to
provide, or for delay in providing the Service,
resulting directly or indirectly from causes
beyond the control of Nextel and its service
providers including, but not limited to, failures
by third parties to provide services or products,
acts of God, or governmental entities, or of the
public enemy, labor strikes or unusually severe
weather."
My company currently operates 52 wireless hotspots. Our key problem is that there are so many different networks. Imagine that the US had one or two hundred different cellular networks, and in most cases your phone couldn't operate on any network but your own, or in the case of many hotspots your "phone" will operate, but you have to sign up with the new network! Nobody is willing to make roaming agreements or any such thing at this point.
It is a well known fear in my industry that if any of the big players gets their act together and makes use of the network they have already built out to provide affordable, dependable, and fast (1.5mb+) wireless access, we won't survive.
I have a SprintPCS wireless connection card (not WiFi, uses the old cell network) and if it was just a little faster, it could have been the WiFi killer.
From glancing at the Nextel site, it says it uses a licensed frequency, meaning it's not 802.11, but on the equipment page, it also mentions that the equipment works with 802.11. Smart move for Nextel. If it's under $75/month, bad for me =(
Come play Moral Decay!