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Nextel Jumps into Wide-Area Wireless Broadband

Posted by simoniker on 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."

11 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing like a company CEO with wireless laptop by t0qer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How often do I see the salespeople and Exec crying because they're laptops hard drive fell apart after being dropped because the careless twits were swinging their shiny new $2k+ around now that they were "freed from wires"

    Wan wireless would be cool if the people that actually had an application for it either got approval or they could justify wireless's cost, but it usually ends up in the hands of marketdroids or MBA's.

    Basically i'm asking, what will the price on this be?

    1. Re:Nothing like a company CEO with wireless laptop by mikehilly · · 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.
  2. Low latency by Space+cowboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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!
    1. Re:Low latency by Anonymous Coward · · 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

    2. Re:Low latency by liquidweb · · 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
  3. Flash memory to access new service by Booyakka+Joe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apparently you can use a special pcmcia card Or flash memory. I wonder if my 8Mb CF will work, or if I'll have to take my 64Mb out of my camera.

    --
    This is where I keep my clever quotes "" Yup I only got a pair, so I better not waste em!
  4. sounds like a cool idea by rock_climbing_guy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'd like to see this in action. It would be great if they could use this technology to reach customers that other broadband companies won't touch. If not, just having them for price competition should be nice. Then again, there is the portability feature.

    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???
  5. Ahem... aren't they the last to join the party? by ChaosMt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:Ahem... aren't they the last to join the party? by Jack+Porter · · Score: 4, Insightful
      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.

      How about reading the link in the article. Flash OFDM is specifically designed for wireless broadband as opposed to 2.5G and 3G data solutions available from the telcos you mentioned.

  6. security - wormy words by josecanuc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Check out their "Features" list under the Personal category at http://www.nextelbroadband.com/pu_features.html

    Security:
    Nextel Wireless Broadband(TM) is as secure as DSL or Cable. In addition, it is a broadband access network based on a proprietary signal processing technology operated over licensed spectrum. Designed across multiple layers, the broadband system prevents unauthorized entities from gaining network access. Depending upon your needs, additional security layers can also be enabled through VPN clients for secure corporate access or SSL for secure Internet transactions. With Nextel Wireless Broadband(TM), you can unwire the Internet and connect to all of your favorite VPN/SSL-secured applications - with confidence.

    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.

  7. WiMax only supports FIXED endpoints. by threeturn · · 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.