Singapore has launched a maritime WiMAX network which will offer mobile internet access to ships in the Port of Singapore and up to 15km from Singapore’s southern coastline.
The WIreless-broadband-access for SEaPort, or WISEPORT, project is the first project to be launched under the Infocomm@SeaPort program (pdf) - a three-year S$12 million joint initiative by the port authorities (MPA) and telecoms regulator (IDA) to promote the use of infocomm technologies in the port and maritime community.
Since it was announced last September, shipyards and marine engineering companies, shipping lines, terminal operators, technology companies and government agencies have expressed interest to participate in the WISEPORT project.
QMax is the appointed operator for the WISEPORT services. Over the past few months, QMax has been working with the MPA and IDA to finalise the project based on feedback from the maritime community. More than 250 accounts have been subscribed to, even before the official launch of WISEPORT.
QMax is offering free 512kbps unlimited data access during the first year of the WISEPORT launch. Subscribers will each receive a thumbdrive-sized WiMAX modem which can be used to access wireless broadband anywhere from the mainland Singapore to southern port waters and offshore islands.
Meanwhile, MuniWireless points out that next month New York City will light up the initial phase of the New York City Wireless Network (pdf). The contract was awarded in September, 2006.
NYCWiN will cover about 70 percent of the city’s 322-square-mile expanse initially. NYCWiN will be expanded to 95 percent coverage by the summer, with full coverage by year’s end, says Paul Cosgrave, Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
Over over 95% of the 400 node sites consist of rooftop antennas sited with approval from the Department of Buildings. The remaining sites, fewer than 20 citywide, require additional zoning approval by the Board of Standards and Appeals and/or City Planning Commission, due to the need for unipoles to achieve appropriate coverage in certain neighborhoods.
The project’s rollout is headed by lead contractor Northrop Grumman, utilizing infrastructure from NextWave Wireless, on the licensed 2.5 GHz band.
The initial 5-year contract is valued at $500 million, with nearly all of it coming from the city itself; part of the initial public safety rollout was funded with $20 million from the Department of Homeland Security.
It features:
- Public safety, both emergency services and non-emergency functions
- Traffic control
- Enforcement and inspection
- Automatic meter reading (more than 800 homes in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn already have been equipped in an initial pilot project for reading water meters)
- Asset tracking (specifically, what NY calls Automatic Vehicle Location)
- Mobile worker productivity in a wide variety of agencies, including Health and Mental Hygiene and NYC Housing Authority
In all, the city says 53 different applications — across 19 different city agencies — are either in pilot deployment or are planned for this year. NYCWiN will enable police officers to access real-time photo, warrant, and license plate databases and enhance access for detective units to the NYPD Real Time Crime Center.
Why not mobile WiMAX for New York City? Apparently Northrup Grumman pitched the idea that the CDMA-based IP Wireless system could utilize frequencies more effectively than the OFDM-based Mobile WiMAX system.
NextWave recently acquired IPWireless, a privately-held company headquartered in San Bruno, California, and the leading supplier of TD-CDMA based mobile broadband network equipment and subscriber terminals. Unlike the 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX) standard which uses OFDMA, IPWireless uses the CDMA standard (see DailyWireless: Nextwave Buys IP-Wireless).
New York City is using IPWireless technology for their city-wide safety network with each cell site providing in-building coverage up to 3 to 5 miles from the cell site in an urban setting. It operates in a single channel of 5 or 10MHz of spectrum and supports voice over IP with full QOS based on SIP.
Flush with cash from their court victory with the FCC over their PCS cellular bid years ago, the company has also gotten into the deployment of Wi-Fi networks through the $13.3 million acquisition of Go Networks and is involved in the delivery of mobile video to cellphones through the acquisition of PacketVideo. NextWave has also acquired nationwide AWS licenses in the U.S. and abroad.
A wholly owned subsidiary of NextWave Wireless, AWS Wireless, won 154 licenses in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) auction in 2006, covering 63 million people in the United States. Nextwave won $115 million of spectrum in the FCC’s AWS auction last year. They now own spectrum covering 247 million Americans in most of the country’s major markets, along with the 2.3 GHz WCS band and 2.5 GHz BRS/EBS spectrum. The AWS licenses (in the 1.7/2.1 GHz bands), cover 63 million people.
New York City’s Huge Safety Net utilizes IP-Wireless with Northrup Grumman the main contractor.
The feds make a big deal about interoperability — but they don’t walk the talk. Washingon DC’s incompatible 700 Mhz safety nets include one using EVDO (Lucent’s safety network) and one using incompatible Flarion technology (WARN) using ten, 700 MHz towers for citywide coverage..
New York City has their $500M, city-wide network (at 2.5 GHz using IP Wireless), while New York State has a $2B public safety network using 700 Mhz, Project 25 radios.
None of these wireless networks are interoperable.
Clearwire’s Mobile WiMAX coverage in Hillsboro (below) does not yet extend into downtown Portland, Oregon, or Vancouver, Washington, across the Columbia River.
But Clearwire’s [standardized] Mobile WiMAX network is headed for a summer rollout in the region and appears to span some 300-400 square miles.
It didn’t cost taxpayers one dime.
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