dailywireless.org » Battle of the (Muni) Bands

Battle of the (Muni) Bands

Portland’s Personal Telco has always had an active list serve discussion. Things are heating up with this week’s announcement by Earthlink to shut down Philadelphia’s Wi-Fi network, the largest in the nation.

Today, it’s the battle of the Tylers (Tyler Booth, President of Stephouse Networks vrs Tyler van Houwelingen, CEO of Azulstar)

Tyler Booth posts:

–
> I think wifi is too expensive - at more than $100K a mile - to provide
> suburban service. That’s why I’m partial to WiMAX for the outskirts.
> Free with ads, $9.95 for up to 1 Mbps.
–
WiMAX is NOT the magic bullet. It costs millions to deploy, you need to own spectrum, and at the end of the day, it’s coverage isn’t any better than wifi minus some given level of interference.
WiFi can be deployed for much less than 100k per sq mile if you’re not providing
mobile access. On top of that, the Clearwire/Sprint/Comcast conglomerate will never provide free access (ad driven or not) and currently charge WAY more than $10 for 1Mb.
Tyler Booth // President
ph. 503.548.2000 | fx. 503.548.2002
921 SW Washington St, Suite 224
Portland OR 97205

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To which Tyler van Houwelingen replies:

This is an interesting discussion, so I thought I would add my opinions….
My firm has extensively deployed both muni WiFi and now WiMax @ 3.65GHz (to replace the muni WiFi networks). IMHO, WiMax is very much the real deal, and you can believe the hype. Using just 2 WiMax APs we get the same coverage that currently takes about 125 WiFi APs and with much (3X) higher client speeds, lower maintenance, better QoS, and up to 20X the number of users per AP, etc. Also, you dont have to deal with the municipality, rights of way, bank switched power, interference, rouge APs, security issues, etc.
I believe that Muni WiFi is pretty much dead. I am not saying it cant work, I am just saying that economically it is not viable right now. $100k per sq mile is being optimistic, the best networks (like the Tropos network in Miami beach) have 50 APs per square mile to get blanket laptop coverage. That translates to about $160k/sq mile, plus very high OPEX for electricity, maintenance, etc. With WiMax, you can do mobile laptop coverage at 1-2 or fewer per square mile depending on the band. WiMax only costs us about 5X more per AP versus WiFi (e.g. tropos), so you do the math on the per sq mile, but the difference is an order of magnitude.
I believe that Muni WiFi is a 5G architecture (picocell) that was attempted many years to early and with the wrong wireless technology. This is not to say that good ideas like PTP and Meraki wont be successfull, they will be. But mobile WiMax is a very important and powerful technology for operators and I hope to see this deployed worldwide as soon as possible. A WiMax iPhone that works everywhere will be truly awesome. Yes WiMax is not free or under $10/month, but it can be a very good deal. You can see our wimax pricing on our website, the lowest prices we offer are $29/mo with no contract for 2Mbps and $49 for 6M. Not as good as free, but certainly not bad.
Tyler van Houwelingen
Founder & CEO
Azulstar, Inc.
1051 Jackson, Grand Haven, MI 49417
Main: 1-877-AZULSTAR
Fax: 616-842-1104
www.azulstar.com

DailyWireless asked Tyler van Houwelingen the Founder & CEO of Azulstar his impressions of the 3.65 GHz gear. Here’s his response:

Azulstar: We have tested Airspan, Redline and now Alvarion gear at 3.65ghz. The redline works great and is not too expensive, but only does fixed wimax 16d for now. The alvarion, I believe, is more expensive but 16e mobile wimax software upgradable and provides great coverage using techniques such as smart antennas and uplink subchannelization. Redline has these features coming in their next model.

DailyWireless: Do you think the majority of municipal wireless operators could
benefit from 3.65?

Azulstar: Yes, however, there are a lot of exclusion zones. We backed out of Sacramento, Winston Salem and Silicon Valley projects because they are all locted in exclusion zones for 3.65GHz. (Just a bad coincidence for us as these were our biggest 3 muni projects going forward)

DailyWireless: Do you think it will become a residential solution?

Azulstar: Yes, but the price of the CPE must come down - it is currently about $450. At under $150 or so, this can go widespread for residential. Centrino WiMax is the best as it is “Free”. Given current CPE prices, we have mostly high end residential and biz right now.

DailyWireless: Where do you think 3.65 (and munifi) is headed?

Azulstar: I think that MuniWiFi will move to be all publicly owned, like Miami Beach or Oklahoma City. These are very useful network for cities to own and use for their agencies - transprotation, meter reading and public safety, etc. It is easier and cheaper to put a full screen traffic or police camera on unlicensed spectrum such as 802.11a or even 4.9GHz than it is on WiMax, which uses very expensive spectrum that needs to be “doled” out.

In other news, Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google, said municipal broadband networks could help boost the availability of high-speed Internet access and even help to ensure Net neutrality in the U.S.. He spoke at a lunch in Seattle, which is investigating the possibility of building its own broadband network. Seattle would follow its southern neighbor Tacoma, which has been operating its own fiber network for several years. Tacoma spent some $100 million for the Click! Network, a municipal SONET fiber network.

Provo Utah’s citywide fiber-optic system will be sold to Broadweave Networks, a local fiber-optic services provider this month. iProvo, the largest municipally owned fiber-to-the-premises network in the U.S., reaching all 36,000 residences and businesses within the city, will be sold for $40.6 million, enough to retire outstanding bonds incurred by Provo to build the system.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants deploying high-speed broadband technology throughout the state to remain a central focus. He praised the power of GIS technology — citing examples from the 2007 Southern California wildfires — and lauded the state agencies that had automated processes and made transactions available online.