Comments for BlogLive at CTIA

Comment on Clearwire’s Wolff embraces 4G as a whole but touts spectrum position by Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:41:25 +0000

Already pursuing it, David–not just Clearwire’s 4G development intiative’s but Verizon’s.

Comment on Samsung launches first WiMAX device for Clearwire by Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:03:22 +0000

Forgive me if I’m wrong, Layne, but it seems to me your being a little disingenuous in an effort to promote the EtherLinx service. Clearwire has two WiMAX networks launched, Baltimore and Portland (as clearly stated in the story), which can support the new Samsung Mondi. Yes, most of Clearwire’s commercial network today is “pre-WiMAX” using proprietary NextNet gear, but it has announced plans to launch at least 8 new WiMAX networks this year, including Chicago.

Comment on Samsung launches first WiMAX device for Clearwire by Layne Holt

Layne Holt — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:49:28 +0000

Samsung is making a Web tablet for Clearwire Corp.’s wireless broadband network… Does Clearwire actually have any REAL WiMAX installed? if so how many customers? Does Samsung mean it is making a Pre-WiMAX tablet?
Clearwire says plans to upgrade its 46 pre-WiMAX markets in the coming years. Meanwhile, it looks like other pure WiMAX deployments, such as Chicago, are getting pushed back. On March 11, 2009 9:00 PM per Clearwire spokeswoman Susan Johnston:
There’s no word yet on what Clearwire will give customers now using its slower “pre-WiMax” network. Johnston said via e-mail that Clearwire “will proactively work with its customers to smoothly transition them to these enhanced mobile WiMax services as they become available. Unfortunately, the current modems aren’t compatible with mobile WiMax
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/brierdudley/2009/03/11/note_to_clearwire_customers_yo.
Nokia Disses WiMax As The ‘Betamax’ Of Wireless Technology and has panned the prospects of 4G wireless standard WiMax, comparing its fate to Betamax, the early video format that emerged in the 1970’s and was superseded by VHS.
WiFi would be a better choice for a Tablet as WiFi is now the faster of the two technologies and WiFi devices will not only connect to the network, but interconnect directly with hundreds of different devices in the home, office, car and public space — some stand alone computing devices in their own right, others ordinary household objects. EtherLinx “Wireless Broadband’s Holy Grail” The solution to “get true broadband to every community in America” with Low Cost Long Range ubiquitous WiFi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6A-G0wT3ys&feature=channel

Comment on Clearwire’s Wolff embraces 4G as a whole but touts spectrum position by David Deans

David Deans — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:44:44 +0000

Let’s hope that others follow Mr. Wolff, for the good of the whole wireless sector and the collective customers that we all serve.

4G networks based upon an end-to-end IP infrastructure should help to significantly lower to inherent cost of delivering high-bandwidth dependent services to customers.

BTW, it will interesting to learn more about how that new WiMAX network in Silicon Valley will be used. Kevin, perhaps you will revisit this topic and share any application insights that you’re able to glean.

cheers, David

Comment on Al Gore challenges wireless industry to think beyond profits by SA Ward

SA Ward — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:09:25 +0000

In these tenuous economic times it is confusing that our political and social leaders ask commercial entities to abandon profits for the greater good. It would be a serious dereliction of responsibilities for corporate leaders to adopt social goals which could impact employment and corporate viability. Also how would the global governments succeed in their programs if there were no profits to tax? Likely I just am not smart enough to appreciate the beauty of abandoning the capitalistic system which supports most of the world’s economies.

Comment on Femto focus shifting to the enterprise by John Spindler

John Spindler — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:27:29 +0000

While femtocells appear to be a great fit for residential applications or SOHO environments. widescale deployment in a large enterprise may be a bridge too far. Femtos are inherently low power, low capacity devices. This means the coverage area of a femto is relatively small (100K sq. ft) would mean deploying a large number of femtos. This may prove to be cost prohibitive, both for the femtos themselves as well as for the backhaul needed for the femtos. In addition, there are potential interference issues, both between femtos as well as possible “bleed out” into the macro network (because femtos generally radiate 360 degrees, it would be difficult to prevent this if a femto were placed on the inside of an exterior wall). Finally, the femto “network” would need to be traffic engineered to support peak traffic, which is inherently inefficient. For instance, to provide adequate capacity in a company cafeteria during lunchtime, 3 femtos may need to be deployed in that space. But outside the lunch hour, capacity requirements will drop, meaning that much of the deployed (and paid for) capacity is sitting idle for much of the day. Also to be considered is the on-going cost of maintenance of a high number of femtos.
A better solution for a larger venue would be to pair a femto or super-femto with a distributed antenna system. This would allow the enterprise to take advantage of the low-cost femto offerings by centralizing the femto (s) in the telecom/IT center and distributing the capacity throughout the facility via a distributed antenna system. This would provide a more efficient use of the capacity provided, eliminate the need to traffic engineer for specific areas within the building (since a DAS distributes all the available capacity to every antenna point), and make both expansion of the system as well as maintenance extremely easy.