Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX Stories

AT&T WiMax Heading South?

From Unstrung
By Dan Jones
September 13, 2007

AT&T (NYSE: T) is preparing to launch WiMax services during the second quarter of 2008, Unstrung has learned from an industry source. The services will likely be in the South of the U.S. where the operator has suitable licenses for broadband wireless services.

The cellular giant is planning to deploy limited WiMax services in the 2.3 GHz band that could be used as a fixed-wireless alternative to DSL or cable offerings, the source says. AT&T is said to have its suppliers for the service lined up now.

Spokespeople for the operator aren't commenting on any potential WiMax deployments. "We would never comment on what we might or might not be doing," one representative for AT&T says.

But this wouldn't be a first. AT&T already has a limited deployment of the technology in Alaska. That initial rollout suggests that AT&T might use the technology to provide better broadband coverage in areas where it has less wireline infrastructure. (See How Close Is AT&T to WiMax?)

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Full story at:
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=133853&f_src=unstrung_gnews

(Lead for this story from BroadBandReports.com RSS Feed.)

EarthLink Dedicates Wi-Fi Network In Corpus Christi

From InformationWeek
By W. David Gardner
August 10, 2007

Dedicated this week, the 55-square-mile municipal wireless network traces its genesis to a dog.

Internet provider EarthLink and the city of Corpus Christi, Texas dedicated a 55-square-mile municipal Wi-Fi network this week, thanks in part to a dog.

"It started as a way to protect water meter readers," recalled EarthLink's Donald Berryman in an interview Friday. "It started as a network to meet a city need after a meter reader was attacked by a dog."

The city began rolling out a 20-square-mile pilot project in 2004 and gradually began adding to the deployment. Berryman, who is president of EarthLink Municipal Networks, noted that several hundred Corpus Christi citizens picked up the Wi-Fi signal and began piggybacking on the network free of charge.

Currently, the city's residents can use the system with upload and download speeds up to 1 Mbps for a $6.95-a-month promotional rate for six months and $19.95-a-month after that. A 3 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload is also available at $9.95 for the first six months and $21.95-a-month after that. Berryman noted that EarthLink expanded the network somewhat after it purchased it from the city this spring for $5.5 million and after the firm committed to spend an additional $900,000 in upgrades.

"This (network) is a true public-private partnership," said Berryman. "You have to realize that each side has to commit to make it work."

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Full story at:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201400236&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News

(Lead for this story from DSLreports.com RSS feed.)

WiMAX Looms As Muni Network Option

From Telephony Online
By Carol Wilson
August 10, 2007

(Fourth in a series)

Wireless access in general, and Wi-Fi technology in particular, has been very attractive to municipalities wanting to improve broadband communications for multiple reasons. One of the most obvious is the fact that laptops and PCs now come routinely equipped with Wi-Fi access, and the access network equipment is also widely available and reasonably priced.

But as more cities discover Wi-Fi's limitations, they are also looking at other wireless options, namely WiMAX, the more robust wireless technology that is just now coming to market. Grand Rapids, Mich., is one of the first cities to move in this direction, partnering with Clearwire, which holds wireless spectrum in various places around the country and has been rolling out broadband wireless using pre-WiMAX technology.

Karl Edwards, president of Excelsio Communications, was a consultant to Grand Rapids on the project, and says the choice is based on looking carefully at the business case and at what the city actually wanted from its network. This is a particularly crucial decision for smaller cities or less densely populated areas, where the cost of putting in a Wi-Fi infrastructure is higher.

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Full story at:
http://telephonyonline.com/wimax/technology/wimax_grand_rapids_081007

(Lead for this story from Google Alerts.)

Struggling Sprint Pushes Its Chips Toward WiMax

From washingtonpost.com
By Kim Hart, Washington Post Staff Writer
August 8, 2007

Survival May Depend on Untested Service

Sprint Nextel is trying to reverse a string of recent disappointments.

Having lost ground to its rivals over the past year and struggled with problems with its old Nextel network, the Reston wireless company is hoping to find its footing by building a high-speed network using an untested technology called WiMax.

Sprint's $3 billion investment has gained support of some technology companies and analysts. On one hand, it has drawn skepticism from Wall Street analysts, some of whom worry there is not enough consumer demand for the nascent technology. But it has the potential to surpass the speed of its competitors' networks and, if successful, Sprint says the network will let customers wirelessly surf the Web at more than twice the speed of current cellular networks.

"Sprint looks like it's in the position where it needs to do this to survive," said Kirsten West, principal analyst with West Technology Research Solutions, a market-research firm in Mountain View, Calif. "Without it, they see themselves as being far less competitive."

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Full story at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/07/AR2007080701927_pf.html

(Lead for this story from Dewayne Hendricks posting to the Dewayne-net mailing list.)

World's Largest Wi-Fi Having Growing Pains

From SFGate / San Francisco Chronicle - www.sfgate.com

Taipei's system began 15 months ago, but subscriptions have fallen far short of what city, contractor had expected

Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer

(04-09) 04:00 PDT Taipei -- Since it began 15 months ago, this city's Wi-Fi system has grown rapidly to become the world's largest, with more than 4,200 antennas and counting. The response of the populace, though, has fallen short of expectations.

The city has struggled to get subscribers to sign up for the service called WIFLY due to some perceived performance issues, competition from free hotspots and a lack of applications.

So far, about 30,000 people are using the system on a consistent basis, well short of original estimates.

Taipei's pioneering experience has implications for cities in the United States that are pursuing similar networks. It is especially relevant in the Bay Area, where many small networks are running and others are planned. Taipei's network is also instructive because of the similarities between the two regions in urban density and an abundance of free hotspots, both potential problems for paid Wi-Fi systems.

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Full story at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/09/BUGK8P4DCO1.DTL&type=tech

(Lead for this story from Dewayne Hendricks posting to the Dewayne-net mailing list.)

Finns Get City-wide Mesh Network

From ZDNet.co.uk News - news.zdnet.co.uk

Andrew Donoghue
ZDNet UK
Published: 22 Feb 2007 17:24 GMT

One of Finland's largest cities is building out a metropolitan mesh network to provide high-speed voice, video and data access to its citizens.

The city of Oulu announced on Thursday that it is using mesh-networking technology from wireless networking manufacturer Strix Systems to double its existing outdoor Wi-Fi coverage with an extra 60 outdoor mesh nodes in the city centre.

Overall, Oulu is committed to adding around 210 extra access points to the network — known as panOULU — by the end of 2007.

"This is a good example of an innovative public and private partnership that can be established to enable large-scale wireless access networks and bring entire cities online," said Jim Mooreland, vice president of worldwide sales for Strix, on Thursday at NetEvents in Geneva.

Mesh networks are made up of individual mesh nodes, which have the ability to automatically form connections with other nodes within range, and reroute traffic if a node drops offline. This makes the networks self-organising.

Full story at:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39286034,00.htm

(Lead for this story from Frederick Wamsley via email.)

New Tower Could Double Wireless Firm's Business

From Baltimore Business Journal - baltimore.bizjournals.com

February 2, 2007
by Stephanie Wentworth
Staff

Paul Dowling is investing $300,000 in his Internet business in hopes of snagging enough Carroll and Howard county customers to double his business.

The tech entrepreneur who founded Believe Wireless LLC in September 2002 plans to use his cash to set up another satellite tower in Owings Mills, where Dowling lives and operates his business. The firm's first tower is located in TV Hill in Baltimore City.

Full story at:
baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/02/05/story13.html?t=printable

(Lead for this story from Peter Radizeski's posting to the WISPA mailing list.)

Southaven builds its own wireless network with city-owned MagnoliaWave

From Memphis Business Journal - memphis.bizjournals.com

February 2, 2007
by Gwynn Bradley

Instead of having its residents rely on other Internet service providers, the City of Southaven built its own high-speed, wireless network from the ground up three years ago.

Other ISPs are available in parts of Southaven, but to make wireless Internet as wide-reaching and cost effective as possible for its residents, MagnoliaWave was born.

Full story at:
memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2007/02/05/focus3.html?t=printable

(Lead for this story from Peter Radizeski's posting to the WISPA mailing list.)

From Memphis Business Journal - memphis.bizjournals.com

February 2, 2007
by Gwynn Bradley

Instead of having its residents rely on other Internet service providers, the City of Southaven built its own high-speed, wireless network from the ground up three years ago.

Other ISPs are available in parts of Southaven, but to make wireless Internet as wide-reaching and cost effective as possible for its residents, MagnoliaWave was born.

Full story at:
memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2007/02/05/focus3.html?t=printable

(Lead for this story from Peter Radizeski's posting to the WISPA mailing list.)