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Forget about Wi-Fi VoIP, Vonage going WiMax
kamikaze-Tech writes "Being reported on the Vonage VoIP
Forum in an article entitled Vonage, Wimax Provider
Team Up it appears Vonage is partnering with
TowerStream to allow you to make calls up to 30 miles away via WiMax. WiMax, another name for the 802.16 standard for
wireless broadband, has a range of up to 30 miles and can deliver broadband
at a theoretical maximum of 75 megabits per second, which is more than 20 times
the speed of the fastest wired broadband available commercially. WiMax serves as
a partial successor to the popular Wi-Fi wireless protocol, which works over far
shorter distances, measured in feet rather than miles."
At current prices (TowerStream charges $600 a month for a 1.5Mbps connection), I don't see how this becomes a challenge to DSL, WiFi, etc. It doesn't even challenge cellphones (EVDO for the laptop and a high level of "anytime" minutes on a separate phone are cheaper than TowerStream's WiMax and have a greater range). It just sounds like TowerStream is bundling it as an added value feature of its existing service.
TFA is chock-full of inaccurate marketing hyperbole, like claiming that 75Mbps is more than 20x faster than "the fastest wired broadband available commercially." Really? Comcast is at 4Mbps and heading up. I've got 6Mbps through Speakeasy. This chart shows multiple cable companies offering 8Mbps with 20 on the way (and that's not counting Verizon's FIOS).
Laughably, News.com just uses the hyperbole in their "news" story a couple of days after publishing that chart. I sent an e-mail to the "reporter" and asked him if he was using the "Parroting A Press Release Without Checking My Facts" mathematical theorem to come to the conclusion that 75 is more than 20 times faster than 8.
Anyhoo, unless there's something I'm missing, this is non-news. It's just an ISP that is bundling Vonage. BFHD.
Start a happiness pandemic
Vonage, Wimax Provider Team Up
August 2, 2005
By Ben Charny
TowerStream, a provider of high-speed Internet services using cutting-edge WiMax technology, has teamed with Internet telephony giant Vonage in one of the first co-marketing agreements of its kind.
Starting today, TowerStream, of Middletown, R.I., is selling New Jersey-based Vonage's Internet telephony plans as part of its regular lineup of services. It will be one of the first such partnerships between a major Internet telephony provider and an Internet service using WiMax, a wireless method for distributing high-speed Internet access that rivals wired Net services from telephone and cable operators.
WiMax, another name for the 802.16 standard for wireless broadband, has a range of up to 30 miles and can deliver broadband at a theoretical maximum of 75 megabits per second, which is more than 20 times the speed of the fastest wired broadband available commercially. WiMax serves as a partial successor to the popular Wi-Fi wireless protocol, which works over far shorter distances--measured in feet rather than miles.
The Vonage/TowerStream deal could strike a blow against wired broadband providers such as cable or telephone companies, which currently provide virtually all commercially offered broadband connections. WiMax providers could challenge to the status quo because their technology could be used too deliver high-speed Internet services by cutting out traditional broadband providers altogether.
With almost 800,000 subscribers, Vonage is among the leading providers of Internet telephony, also known as voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, which is a method to digitize phone calls, then route them over the Internet. Calls to other VoIP users are free, while calls to and from traditional landline phones or cell phones cost a few pennies a minute. Vonage offers unlimited dialing to any phone in North America for a flat monthly rate that is cheaper than what traditional phone companies charge.
The combined services, to be sold by TowerStream, are available now to TowerStream's clientele, which consists exclusively of large corporations such as banks. Think about your breathing. TowerStream typically charges about $600 a month for a 1.5mbps connection. The services are available to businesses in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, and will be extended to more cities in the near future, according to a spokeswoman for TowerStream.
WiFi operates in the ISM bands. Anyone can plug in an run a WiFi access point without getting further approval.
Current WiMax equipment is being targeted at licensed bands. You need to buy (expensive) spectrum to operate WiMax. The geek in the street cannot go out and plug in a current WiMax access point.
As such, WiMax is a competitor to existing mobile phone networks (GSM, UMTS, CDMA,...), not a successor to 802.11 wireless LANs. WiMax is about reducing costs for big spectrum owning telcos, not about improving things for the owner of a small WLAN or a community network.
In summary, you won't be thowing your home 802.11 WiFi access point away and replacing it with the current crop of 802.16 WiMax 'access points' (probably better called base stations).
That'd be about a T1's rate for about a T1's price. Now, in light of other broadband offerings, it's wayyy pricey, but considering that they're allowing mobile service and can cover areas that the Telcos and Comcast have no apparent desire to support...
A T1 typically has a four hour commit to repair time; that is, the provider has four hours to begin making repairs to the connection. That's each T1 separately. If the WiMax tower equipment goes down, will they begin repairs within four hours? it might take them five or six to get a tech to the site in the first place depending on their manpower and distribution of same.
Meanwhile I get 5Mbpsx512Kbps on cable with, so far, 90% reliability and no outage lasting longer than two days with the average lasting less than one hour, over the five years I've had it. I pay $60/month for it and know full well I'm not getting T1 SLAs nor paying anything like it.
Whether it is worth it or not depends on whether or not you live and die by mobile data access. If so, it may be worth it for you. If not, then not.
To say that the telcos and cable operators have no desire to cover areas that WiMax will is fallacious and shows zero knowledge of the cable operators. I worked cable for years and keep tabs on the industry so I do know that they are very interested in serving the rural markets. Their take is different than a superficial knowledge would believe however. They are more and more leaving the service to local operators who live there and know the people and building alliances behind the scene. They are succeeding and biting back into satellite penetration numbers which previously had been biting theirs. Telcos are also not forgetting the rural areas. Like cable they know the bulk of the money is in urban and suburban markets which will pay off the infrastructure buildout in a way that the rural customers never could have afforded were it entirely on their shoulders.
We urban and suburband high speed customers are the ones paying for the future services of the rural customers. Nature of the business.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)