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."

Comments

$600

[rd4tech]

TowerStream typically charges about $600 a month for a 1.5mbps connection
Isn't this a bit on the expensive side?

This is News?

[gbulmash]

TFA doesn't specify exactly how this is to operate. With Vonage's SoftPhone (or Skype, or other services), the VOIP application is entirely CPU based without the need for external boxen, so that means as long as you have some sort of broadband access coming into your PC, you're good to go. I have Vonage SoftPhone and it works via Cable, DSL, WiFI, etc.

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.

Article Text

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

interference

[mo]

There are tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of wifi access points in a 30 mile radius of me right now. With wimax, all of these will be interfering with my signal. Can someone explain to me how I would get anything better than modem-like speeds with all of this interference?

VoIP at 75Megabits?!?

[Locke2005]

I don't think even my wife can talk that fast!

Beat them, or join them?

[Lewisham]

The most interesting part of this deal is that Vonage are cutting a little niche around cell phone providers, just like they have done landline providers.

But I'm interested to know whether we're going to see Vonage take an agressive pricing stance against cell phone providers as they did the landline behemoths, or whether they're going to join the cartel, and effectively price consumers as much as possible, because, hey, the other guys are doing it too.

I guess we'll have to see what happens when WiMax becomes a more realistic prospect price-wise.

75 Mbs per customer?

[Malc]

Is that 75 Mbs for WiMax per customer, or is it shared by all of the users?

How many simultaneous connections?

[billstewart]

Sure, it's nice to get some combination of wide area, long distance, and high bandwidth (though obviously you don't get max bandwidth and max area simultaneously), but how many simultaneous connections can it support with reasonably latency performance? For VOIP, you don't need a lot of bandwidth per user, typically 22-80kbps depending on your choices of codecs, but if you're handling a lot of customers over a wide area, you're going to need a lot of simultaneous connections. Will that number change if some of your users are also burning high bandwidth?

Interference is less of a problem than some people think. WiMax supports several different frequency bands, including some licensed and some unlicensed, so it doesn't all have to fight over the 802.11b/g 2.4 GHz band.

WiMax is not a successor to WiFi

[femto]

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).