May 9, 2008

Can Azulstar Make WiMax Work without Buying Spectrum?

By Glenn Fleishman

Azulstar once pinned its fortunes on city-wide Wi-Fi, but now looks to a special licensed spectrum band to make WiMax work where Wi-Fi failed: Azulstar has been the also-ran in Wi-Fi for some years, I’ll just state bluntly and upfront. They built a network in Grand Haven, Mich., in 2003 that’s one of—if not the—longest running metro-scale Wi-Fi networks in the world designed for public access. The mayor of Grand Haven since 2003, Roger Bergman, told me, “I got on board personally right away, and I am still on.”

Azulstar soon answered several RFPs and partnered up with major firms to bring Wi-Fi to Rio Rancho, N.M., Winston-Salem, N.C., Sacramento, Calif., and most notably Silicon Valley—a set of dozens of cities along with county government and private enterprise all wanting some kind of tiered Wi-Fi across 1,500 sq mi.

While EarthLink, MetroFi, and even Kite Networks (with their extensive Arizona buildout in Tempe launched a bit before any other large competiting network) seized the headlines, and later made news about their stalls, failures, and exits, Azulstar seemed quietly to sink into the sand. The Wireless Silicon Valley deal fell apart, as did Sacramento after efforts to get stakeholder and outside investment seemed to fail to materialize, and the marquee partners—Cisco, IBM, and Intel—just wouldn’t step up to the plate to make the project move forward. Azulstar was the lead techology firm, but the money just didn’t come. (Both California projects are moving forward with a different set of partners and expectations now.)

Rio Rancho was perhaps one of the biggest letdowns. City manager Jim Payne explained in an interview a few weeks ago, “They had a number of things that were going against them from the start, and they did make an attempt to meet the requirements of the contract.” But Rio Rancho voted to not just terminate the contract after years of attempts to make the network work, but rejected a proposal from Azulstar a few weeks ago to switch over equipment on the poles. Azulstar now has to remove all its devices.

All of this might make the typical company head a bit depressed about his firm’s future, and less than sanguine about the potential for wireless broadband to work at all. Not so for Tyler van Houwelingen, Azulstar’s chief, and I have to admit that he convinced me that the wireless provider has a fighting chance, due to a good combination of timing, spectrum policy, and a large dollop of can-do spirit.

Read the rest of "Can Azulstar Make WiMax Work without Buying Spectrum?"

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:58 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Future, Metro-Scale Networks, Municipal, Unique, WiMAX | Comments (0)

May 8, 2008

Cablevision Antes up $350m for Wi-Fi Network in New York

By Glenn Fleishman

Cablevision will offer free Wi-Fi to its customers across a swath of New York: The company will spend an astounding $350m over two years—roughly $100 per customer—to put in service that they peg at offering 1.5 Mbps downstream rates. Broadband subscribers to their Optimum Online broadband service, which has rates of 15/2 and 30/5 Mbps. Others will pay for access. The company has 3.1m cable customers in New York.

This is the first large-scale Wi-Fi network announced that had no public/private component to it. While Verizon once said they’d blanket New York City with payphone-based Wi-Fi nodes, that never materialized, and it was unclear how seamless the coverage would ever be. This is a full-blown metro-scale network that’s not beholden to any political interest, and which can likely use mounting rights already available to Cablevision. (In the past, I’ve said this, and folks have said that franchising agreements would exclude additional mounted equipment of this kind. Years later, I have to say I’ve never found anything to support that opinion, but welcome more documented information in the comments.)

The idea is for Wi-Fi to act as a mobile broadband component for Cablevision, to dilute the impact of the Sprint/Clearwire deal announced yesterday. While cable companies rarely compete in a given territory, the Sprint/Clearwire joint venture will make it easier for a customer to get home and mobile broadband and voice from one company, and then turn to another firm for video. This buys Cablevision a quadruple play (voice, video, data, mobile broadband) with a future quintuple play by adding (as they say they will) voice over Wi-Fi service.

Sources indicate that BelAir equipment will be used, which makes sense given BelAir’s release nearly three years ago of a cable-plant compatible Wi-Fi node designed essentially for precisely this contingency. This is a nice win for BelAir, which will likely be selling somewhere north of 15,000 nodes based on the coverage area and service described. BelAir gear also powers Minneapolis, the only successfully completed big-city Wi-Fi network in North America.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:21 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Financial, Free, Hot Spot, Metro-Scale Networks | Comments (1)

iPhone Wi-Fi Hotspot Access Now in AT&T Plan Details

By Glenn Fleishman

It’s on, it’s off, it’s on again: Access to AT&T hotspots is back on again, at least in the fine print, as the company now includes the statement that all iPhone plans in the U.S. include “access to AT&T’s more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks.” (Click the Plans tab at top to see that text.)

AT&T appeared to have flipped a switch several days ago on its “attwifi” SSID that has appeared alongside T-Mobile’s during this several-month transition at Starbucks from one operator to another. iPhone users were presented with a custom login screen that prompted them for their phone number to obtain free access. That gateway page disappeared a few days. I haven’t tested if it’s back, but at least AT&T has, at long last, made the connection that its iPhone customers might enjoy the same free access to hotspots as its 7m fiber and qualifying DSL customers.

Update: And….that information is now gone, Computerworld reports. It’ll be back.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:39 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Free, Hot Spot | Comments (0)

May 7, 2008

Wee-Fi: E-Path Loses Delray Beach

By Glenn Fleishman

Long Island unwirer E-Path loses local contract: The small Florida firm that signed up to build out Wi-Fi across two counties in Long Island—and hasn’t seemingly raised funding yet to build even the pilot stage—has had its contract to build Delray Beach, Flor.’s network terminated. “This has been an unfortunate waste of staff time,” one city commissioner is quoted as saying, even as the city now turns to figure out how to find another contractor. E-Path had previously seen its Trenton, NJ, deal terminated when that city couldn’t agree to purchase services on the network that would be built.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:06 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Wee-Fi | Comments (0)

Buh-Bye, Philly

By Glenn Fleishman

Metro Philadelphia is reporting that the city’s Wi-Fi network may halt operations as soon as tomorrow, 08-May-2008: The site reports that EarthLink stopped accepting new customers last week, and told Philadelphia that without a plan by the city to assume control of the network by tomorrow, it would start dismantling the network, after a previous deadline set for last Wednesday passed. EarthLink owes the city a $1m payment on May 23, the site reports.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:33 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Municipal | Comments (0)

May 6, 2008

Wee-Fi: Evolution of Free-Fi; The Cloud Adds Devicescape; Ruckus Sues NetGear

By Glenn Fleishman

The New York Times thoughtfully examines the growth of free or fee in one hotspot: The article looks at how venues are now having the best of both worlds, providing free Wi-Fi or Internet access in exchange for loyalty or viewing ads, while also offering a pay option for those who choose to avoid advertising or exceed the free offer’s limits. Starbucks is a notable example, given that Starbucks Card users (who buy something with the card or charge it monthly) get two consecutive hours of free use every day in AT&T managed locations. The hotel market is murkier; the writer missing mentioning Wyndham’s switchover to free Internet access when you join their no-cost loyalty program, mentioning the smaller Omni chain’s similar move. The article also notes a few free airports, but doesn’t get the picture there, that airport costs and captivity are so high, it’s unlikely that premium airports will switch to ad-support, even with the example of Denver and Las Vegas in hand.

The Cloud partners with Devicescape for no-configuration connections: The Cloud will use their software and service to allow its users to connect to its hotspots and those of its roaming partners. There are 10,500 locations in The Cloud’s own network. Devicescape’s software is available for computer operating systems, as well as several mobile platforms. While Devicescape’s software works across many networks without their direct promotion, the distribution of their package by the Cloud gives Devicescape more leverage with equipment makers, and makes use of The Cloud much easier for that network’s customers, increasing retention and ostensibly signups.

Ruckus alleges patent infringement by partner NetGear: Ruckus Wireless did license its patents to NetGear for two models of the WPN824 router released by NetGear, but alleges in its lawsuit that NetGear released a subsequent model that wasn’t covered by the deal. I rarely mention legal matters, but this is a unique case: hardware is involved and an existing partnership. The outcome could be expensive for NetGear if it’s found to infringe, because this model (I don’t know about the particular version) was one of the best-selling Draft N routers.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:13 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Wee-Fi | Comments (0)

May 5, 2008

Sprint’s Public Safety Deal for Nextel Comes Home to Roost

By Glenn Fleishman

Sprint seemed awfully clever when it navigated a public safety deal and gained new spectrum as part of its acquisition of Nextel: That’s all unraveling now. The FCC and the courts are saying that a 26-June-2008 deadline for vacating its 800 MHz holdings in favor of public safety groups would hold even if the new users weren’t on the band. The delays for new users getting on the band are reportedly Sprint’s, given that it had the responsibility for this migration.

Nextel had splintered holdings in the 800 MHz band that were difficult to administer, and caused verifiable interference with (and vice versa) splintered public safety spectrum in that band. Sprint agreed to pay the estimated multi-billion-dollar cost of getting new equipment to public safety agencies in exchange for a hunk of spectrum that they wouldn’t have to buy at auction from the FCC. The cost for a whole set of swaps, migrations, and givebacks was $4.8b, but there was technically no limit on how much Sprint would have to pay for public safety migration—as much as it cost is the true limit.

Last August, the Wall Street Journal did a lengthy update of the 2005 deal, explaining that the effort was vastly behind schedule, and was vastly underbudgeted, too. One county in Pennsylvania estimated that its costs could run $18.5m to $150m, with the low number far above Sprint’s own estimates.

It would be seemingly unfair to allow Sprint’s delays in moving fire, police, and first responders off the band to also delay Sprint’s requirement in vacating the band. We’ll see how the FCC chooses to respond. It could cost Sprint billions and further accelerate the loss of Nextel customers, because Sprint would lose a number of active iDEN sites.

They have no one to blame but themselves. Sprint’s management has blundered through this merger for years. They kept separate Kansas and Virginia headquarters, failed to produce high-quality dual-network devices, gave few incentives for Nextel customers to move to Sprint’s dominant CDMA network, bled employees, and botched this migration.

Now Sprint did have the problem of needing to help move incumbents in the 1.9 GHz spectrum it received and the 800 MHz spectrum it was giving up. The articles on this court decision don’t note whether Sprint’s 1.9 GHz network is free and clear, nor whether Sprint had been working for the last three years to get its Nextel users to get dual-band handsets that would work with the new frequency.

With the WiMax plan also on the table, Sprint was basically committed to building or rebuilding and supporting four network architectures: CDMA (for 2G), EVDO (for 3G), WiMax (for 4G), and iDEN (for 2G).

Sprint is in the position where it may variously be sold (to Deutsche Telekom to merge with its T-Mobile USA division, which would add both GSM and UMTS/HSPA to the mix!), sell off its Nextel division (to a public safety venture headed by Cyren Call), and/or spin off its WiMax division or form a broad venture with Clearwire to build and market it.

Update: Oh, yeah, and Qwest walks away from Sprint partnership, switching to Verizon Wireless as its partner. Qwest spun off its cell division years ago, and has no overlap in its wireline territory with Verizon.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 2:25 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Cellular, Cluelessness, Financial | Comments (0)

BPL Powers Down

By Glenn Fleishman

Broadband over powerline (BPL) is always next year’s technology; now it’s never. Is never soon enough for you? For about the last 13 years, BPL was the going to be the third pipe into the home, supplementing the two incumbent wireline offerings of DSL and cable, which had developed into monopoly or duopoly controls most places in the world. Two years ago, with favorable FCC and upcoming EC decisions on BPL either released or about to happen, BPL seemed about to come into its own. I wrote a positive piece for The Economist based in large part on an enormous deployment that was contracted and underway in Texas, and a contract that had just been signed in France. These two events seemed like they would catalyze BPL.

About 18 months later, the Current Communicatins and TXU (now Oncor) Electric Delivery deal, which was expected to pass 2m homes by the end of 2008, is over, with Oncor purchasing the telecommunications network for $90m a few days ago. Oncor will use just the smart grid features that allow dramatically improved network monitoring—which is a well-understood aspect of data over powerlines, dating to much slower and primitive networks. The Dallas Morning News reports that just 64,000 homes were wired for BPL so far, and that Oncor will not offer Internet access. Oncor had agreed in 2006 to pay $150m for smart-grid features.

Google was a Current investor, which gave more credence to their plans in 2006. The company had already rolled out some smaller markets, overcome equipment problems, and had a positive relationship with the ARRL, the amateur radio society, in resolving interference issues. Hams have been the biggest complaintants with the FCC over BPL because hams are primary and secondary licensed users in the bands they use, while BPL is an unlicensed use.

The French deployment by SIPPEREC, a utility that manages power for the suburbs of Paris, stated that 1.5m homes would eventually be passed with BPL service, but no information has been released since Feb. 2007 about the project, which makes it likely that it simply didn’t happen.

Even when I was researching the Economist piece, I was troubled by the many European deployments that were announced, went into trials, and then disappeared without a trace. Still, there were some active projects in Spain, Switzerland, and Ireland, and the rollouts in France and Texas seemed both committed (contracts were signed) and imminent. But the laws of physics always win, and I can only think that BPL equipment from whatever vendor simply cannot deliver results that work within budget and reliably enough to make network deployment for broadband make any sense.

The FCC’s 2006 order that overruled a number of ARRL objectives stated, essentially, that interference was okay even with licensed purposes as long as it was within tightly controlled parameters. Part of the “BPL is dead” argument I make today stems from an appeals court decision in late April which affirms the FCC licensed/unlicensed approach, but which requires the agency to re-evaluate its information about interference. The FCC failed to disclose fully information from studies it relied on in setting rules, which violated public process. The ARRL wrote up the appeals decision on their site, and notes that a study in the UK that was fully released showed a much lower threshold would be needed.

The agency’s need to redo some of its work, a potential shift of power to Democrats on the commission starting 20-Jan-2009, and the fact that other work shows the rules were established incorrectly could result in restrictions on BPL that make it even less likely to be rolled out. [Initial links via DSL Reports]

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:59 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Power Line | Comments (0)

May 2, 2008

iPhone Gains 15 Minutes Free Wi-Fi in 28 Airports

By Glenn Fleishman