DSL Reports has an interesting article on the “pre-WiMAX” (NextNet) gear and service now available by Canadian subscribers to Rogers. DSL Report’s forum on Rogers’s service discuss the new “Portable Internet” solution. The Rogers Website has additional info.
Built in conjunction with Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, the Inukshuk network is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The total investment of the partnership between Bell and Rogers is expected to reach $200-million by 2008 covering over 100 urban and rural areas.
The 2.5 Gigahertz solution offers 1.5Mbps downstream speeds and 256kbps up, with a 30Gig monthly cap, for $49.95 / month (modem costs $100). Service is available in some 20 cities across Canada
Users in the forum state the modem is rather bulky, and requires being plugged into a power outlet, limiting the portability, obviously (see photo of the modem in question).
According to Digital Home Canada, Rogers Communications and Bell Canada have pooled all their licensed wireless broadband spectrum into a new company - Inukshuk Internet - that is equally owned and controlled by the cable guys and the phone company.
They will also equally share transmission capacity and will work with other wireless broadband providers such as Clearwire to make sure that wireless broadband users can roam on other networks. Inukshuk will build and operate the network, that within three years should bring wireless broadband to two-thirds of Canadians. It is going to cost $200 million and will cover 40 cities and approximately 50 rural and remote communities across Canada. I wish some of our big guys roll out a similar network!
Inukshuk has (MCS) spectrum in the 2500 MHz range, and proposes to build a high-speed wireless access network based in the 13 regional service areas defined by the Department. In 2000, Industry Canada awarded Inukshuk 12 of the 13 available MCS licences. These 12 licence areas cover all of Canada except Manitoba and Saskatchewan and where approximately 30 million Canadians live.
According to the Globe and Mail, the wireless high-speed Internet network is expected to reach more than two-thirds of Canadians in less than three years. Bell and Rogers will each have the right to use 50 per cent of the network’s total transmission capacity, but will compete against each other using their own sales and marketing staffs.
NextNet gear is portable (indoors and out), not mobile (with automatic handoff). NextNet does not yet conform to the Mobile WiMAX spec (since there really isn’t one yet), but plans to at a later date.
Clearwire, the wireless broadband company that last year acquired NextNet Wireless received a $100 million investment from Bell Canada as part of a new alliance between the two companies. Clearwire is partnering with Bell Canada to provide voice calls over its network and with Intel for WiMax gear.
The Bell Canada/Clearwire alliance makes Clearwire an exclusive strategic partner for VoIP and certain other value-added IP services and applications in the United States. Bell Canada will also become Clearwire’s preferred provider of these services and applications in markets beyond North America. Clearwire owns a huge chunk of 2.5GHz across the United States and plans to take it national.
WiMAX Global News interviewed Monica Paolini of Senza Fili Consulting. She is bullish on the Mobile WiMAX standard but not particularly bullish on mobility. As she explains, mobility requires blanket coverage for handoff. Cell companies have that market covered. But indoor WiMAX and portable WiMAX (without the handoff) are areas where the new 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX) standard can shine — high speed without the high price.
Unfortunately, Mobile WiMAX won’t have blanket coverage for years. Cellular is better for voice because cellco towers are ubiquitous, says Paolini. VoIP over Mobile WiMAX could be threatening to cellcos. Later.
Clearwire, BellSouth Wireless Broadband and (soon) Sprint WiMAX are the only (licensed) WiMax providers with a nationwide footprint in the United States.
Will AT&T (or DirecTV) buy Clearwire? Then Mobile WiMAX providers in the United States would be reduced to Sprint and AT&T. End of competition. Duopoly cellcos control the chockpoints.
Is that Kevin Martin’s dream sequence?
