Hey people.. It's already being built, though not in a form that fits some of y'all's "everything must be free" sensibilities.
Ricochet (designed and built by Metricom) offers 128kbps speed (twice the speed of dialup modems, same as top end ISDN, and same as low end DSL) TCP/IP connectivity. Check http://www.metricom.com or http://www.ricochet.net for more information. It works, and it works well. The technology is not based on cell phone type protocols (not CDMA, GSM, HDR, CPDP, etc) but is using spread spectrum techniques in a scheme invented by Metricom. The spectrum used is the unlicensed bands at 9xx MHz and 2.4 GHz, and Ricochet devices follows all the spectrum sharing rules required by those spots of spectrum. This is the service that Metricom has been promising for years now. An earlier version, Ricochet1 (28.8kbps), has been running for over 5 years -- these guys have got lots of real world experience running a wide area wireless TCP/IP data network, unlike these johnny-come-lately cell phone companies with their pie-in-the-sky 3G claims.
It is currently deployed in 12 (or so) U.S. cities and Metricom has plans to have it deployed in 45+ U.S. cities by the end of 2001. By "cities" I mean "metripolitan areas" -- The whole SF Bay Area counts as one of those 12 cities, for example.
It is charged at a flat rate per month, not usage sensitive, and there's no hidden charges anywhere. They want people to use the thing, and forsee that people don't want to be limited by location any more. Hardware capabilities have grown enough that you can make a pretty decent stab at providing desktop equivalent computing power in a portable package (so long as you don't limit yourself to a tiny PDA sized screen).
How do all you "everything must be free" mavens expect for a totally free wireless net to be properly paid for and maintained?? Yes, you can string a bunch of 802.11 devices across a city. Then that city is wired at ethernet speed for TCP/IP connectivity. Okay, cool, who's going to pay the bandwidth charges to gateway that free wireless net out to The Internet?? Who's going to pay a staff to maintain the net?? Who's going to troubleshoot the network (this requires staff) to keep it running?? If someones node breaks, are they very likely to replace it, or are they just going to forget to do anything??
The advantage of paying for a service, is that you encourage that service to continue existing.
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Ricochet (designed and built by Metricom) offers 128kbps speed (twice the speed of dialup modems, same as top end ISDN, and same as low end DSL) TCP/IP connectivity. Check http://www.metricom.com or http://www.ricochet.net for more information. It works, and it works well. The technology is not based on cell phone type protocols (not CDMA, GSM, HDR, CPDP, etc) but is using spread spectrum techniques in a scheme invented by Metricom. The spectrum used is the unlicensed bands at 9xx MHz and 2.4 GHz, and Ricochet devices follows all the spectrum sharing rules required by those spots of spectrum. This is the service that Metricom has been promising for years now. An earlier version, Ricochet1 (28.8kbps), has been running for over 5 years -- these guys have got lots of real world experience running a wide area wireless TCP/IP data network, unlike these johnny-come-lately cell phone companies with their pie-in-the-sky 3G claims.
It is currently deployed in 12 (or so) U.S. cities and Metricom has plans to have it deployed in 45+ U.S. cities by the end of 2001. By "cities" I mean "metripolitan areas" -- The whole SF Bay Area counts as one of those 12 cities, for example.
It is charged at a flat rate per month, not usage sensitive, and there's no hidden charges anywhere. They want people to use the thing, and forsee that people don't want to be limited by location any more. Hardware capabilities have grown enough that you can make a pretty decent stab at providing desktop equivalent computing power in a portable package (so long as you don't limit yourself to a tiny PDA sized screen).
How do all you "everything must be free" mavens expect for a totally free wireless net to be properly paid for and maintained?? Yes, you can string a bunch of 802.11 devices across a city. Then that city is wired at ethernet speed for TCP/IP connectivity. Okay, cool, who's going to pay the bandwidth charges to gateway that free wireless net out to The Internet?? Who's going to pay a staff to maintain the net?? Who's going to troubleshoot the network (this requires staff) to keep it running?? If someones node breaks, are they very likely to replace it, or are they just going to forget to do anything??
The advantage of paying for a service, is that you encourage that service to continue existing.
- David