Some of the support-free, subscription-free, cost-free models may work that way in some sense. That is, if you want to avail yourself of the "free cloud" you need to get a savvy friend or employ a "nerd-for-hire" to get you hooked up. The provider simply inhales deeply, exhales the cloud, puts up advertising and expects a peripheral-industry to be support-for-hire...and, collects the ad revenue.
. . . j o n a t h a n -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom DeReggi Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 6:25 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program I had a quick interesting conversation with Mobile Pro at WCA. And he brought up a good point about, why should we discourage investment in this industry. I say, if someone thinks they can make mesh work, good for them, I'll even help them if I can to find ways for it to work better, as long as its done on their dollar. Who am I to critisize that Earthlink or anyone can or can't make it work. If they make it work, horray for us all, we can all follow step and install mesh networks ourselves, after letting them pay for all the R&D to prove it can work. But today... I bet my money on models that have proven to work. There is no evidence that Zero truck roll/ Zero CPE models will work reliably. MESH for mobility (or I should say portabilty) on the other hand is clearly possibly, even advantageous with MESH. So I do not care what the "WHOLE PURPOSE " is, all I care about is what is the "WHOLE REALITY". Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Wu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 5:49 PM Subject: RE: [WISPA] EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program Hi Tom, The WHOLE PURPOSE of a WiFi Mesh Network Strategy is to AVOID THE COST OF THE CPE & TRUCK ROLL Now -- whether this theory works in practice is a whole nother issue -Charles P.S. FWIW - personally, I find the the concept (from an ROI perspective) of a service provider WiFi mesh to be a bit far-fetched, but then again, 10 years ago, I told the founder of half.com that you was bonkers, and proceded to get into the wireless biz =/ ------------------------------------------- CWLab Technology Architects http://www.cwlab.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom DeReggi Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 3:03 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program The primary difference being that in the Canopy Fixed Wireless you are including end user CPE. The largest cost to detur take rate when WISPS make subs pay for it. Its likely that one can assume that many of the subscribers will need to install outdoor equipment (adding $100-$300 BUCKS), to reliably connect to the mesh. So you could easilly add $1.5 million to the mesh cost for CPE, or remove $1.5million from the Fix Wireless plan if you were going to compare apples to apples. What Mesh still has on its side is mobility. The question is what value should a WISP put on that. Mobility can be easilly be the reason to justify why a muni should support a oublic interest project. (cable and DSL go to the home but NOT mobile for teh community to share.). Mobilty also allow Muni type applications, such as to support travelling users (commerce), or Mobile government work force. Mesh also gives Muni bargining power in the deployment, as it uses an asset of value that the governement has to trade and offer (easements, light poles, and power from them). In a Fixed Wireless deployment it could easilly be argued that teh givernemnt has little assets of value to the provider. Its usually the independant property owners tht have the preferred assets for signal distribution. For example, in my county, I am allowed free access to city infrastructure as a requirement that allowed tower building restrictions to be passed years ago. But yet I chose to pay for broadcast sites, because teh Governement do not own the best sites that are advantageous to me. Part of my point is that its not jsut the radios costs that are relevant. I'm starting to think that the Tropos, use all verticle, use only one channel all across the network, design may not be to bad an ideas after all. If it solves the challenge to get mobility well, and does not work well for subs inside their homes, it still allows lots of spectrum for the high quality Fixed Wireless providers. Part of the arguement is that its possible that MESH may be the only way to get mobilty well. And maybe the answer is to deliver it with the least impact on everyone else. Of course Alvarion mobile products have shown otherwise for vehichle mobile solutions. So what would happen if more Fixed Wireless manufacturers made Mobile CPEs? Would it get rid of some of teh need of mesh? Sure mesh gives person/laptop mobility, but will any one really use it? There is a good arguement that if usage of hotspots is low in public areas (parks, cafes, etc) it would be even lower on the streets and such. There is still very little evidence that communities will get the MESH signal insidet heir home reliably without external CPE equipment. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Wu" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 1:43 PM Subject: RE: [WISPA] EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program >a whole 49 square feet, eh ? Real hard. :) Some interesting thoughts for Friday I forget the exact numbers, but Tropos recommends something like 20 APs / square mile to get 95% coverage at b/g rates 49 square miles = 49*20 ~ 960 Aps Part# MTR-52103000-500AA is a 500 pack of HotZone Aps on their price sheet that goes for about $1.5 million list So that's $3 million in Aps -- for simplicity -- lets assume that mounting hardware, power taps, etc is equal to the equivalent in discount Then we need to add in the additional infrastructure, like backhaul SMs, Routers, Servers, etc and the services required to install / implement the system... Experience from a similar type deployment (~40 square miles) pegs the entire project at about $5 million for E,F&I Market Data: Census information puts Anaheim w/ a population of 328k people (97k households) Median income for a household is $47k According to the March 2006 PEW Internet report -- in 2006, 46% of the population that makes between $30-75k / year have broadband at home So the total addressable broadband market in Anaheim is 46k subscribers of which 99% today are probably using some sort of landline cable / dsl broadband solution that is bundled together w/ their TV/phone service With a 10% penetration rate (that's ~5k subscribers) -- total revenue comes out to about $110k / month Assuming ZERO marketing, provisioning, customer service, bandwidth, support, repair costs -- the breakeven point for this system is 5 years (ouch) Lets look at fixed wireless 49 square miles is basically equivalent to a 4 mile ring around a tower Remember Area = (Pie)(R)^2 A = 3.14*4^2 A Canopy SM (averaged b/n 900 & 5 Ghz) costs about $300 complete (w/ antenna, mounting hardware, power supply, etc) A Canopy AP costs about $2k complete (dividing up GPS sync, etc) 5k Canopy SMs would cost me about $1.5 million The associated install costs (@ $50 / install) costs about $250k At 50 SMs / AP -- the AP costs runs around $250k Infrastructure / Hardware / Switches / Site Ac / Engineering / etc would cost about $100k (remember -- this is only a 4 mile radius =) Interesting Thoughts: Moto-Mesh System Cost to service 5k customers within 49 square miles: $5 million Canopy Fixed Wireless System Cost to service 5k customers within 49 square miles: $2.5 million Hrm... -Charles ------------------------------------------- CWLab Technology Architects http://www.cwlab.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Smith Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 6:46 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; WISPA General List Subject: RE: [WISPA] EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter R. Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 12:19 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program EarthLink Unwires Anaheim, Announces Wholesale Program By Tara Seals Posted on: 06/29/2006 EarthLink Inc. launched a municipal Wi-Fi broadband network in Anaheim, Calif., and announced a wholesale Wi-Fi access strategy on Thursday. EarthLink has won bids in several cities to provide citywide wireless Internet access, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, but Anaheim is its first commercial launch. It's also the first piece of a strategy to create a nationwide footprint of municipal Wi-Fi networks by tying together all EarthLink municipal markets under one service. Hand in hand with creating the footprint will be an open-access wholesale program. The ISP already has two national wholesale partners, announced today: PeoplePC Inc., EarthLink's wholly owned subsidiary, and DIRECTV. It also plans to partner with local ISPs that want to provide Wi-Fi service in their respective markets. The portable, wireless service will provide high-speed Internet access for residents, businesses, visitors and municipal employees. Anaheim's 49-square-foot buildout is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter. Curt Pringle, the mayor of the city, officially unwired the city at a wire-cutting ceremony this morning. "The days when Anaheim residents, workers and visitors are tied to a desk to access an affordable broadband network are coming to an end," said Garry Betty, president and CEO of EarthLink. "The launch of this network enables people to make a choice about how, and from where, they want to access the Internet securely." For $21.95 a month, Anaheim subscribers receive eight mailboxes and protection tools such as a spam blocker and security, and will be able to access the Internet from across the municipality, whether sitting in a park, at a café or elsewhere. Customers also can purchase a Wi-Fi modem for at-home use. In addition, EarthLink has reached a nonbinding agreement with AOL LLC and is discussing ways to offer its AOL.com content and Web assets on the municipal footprint. The network also will serve city departments and businesses; EarthLink's wireless network offers speeds comparable to existing T1 solutions, the company says. For occasional-use customers, EarthLink offers rates ranging from $3.95 for a one-hour pass to $15.95 for a three-day pass. Occasional-use customers will connect and access account information from the EarthLink portal page. Consumers can visit www.EarthLink.net/wifi and provide their phone numbers and addresses to see if the network has been built out in their area. If unavailable, they will be added to a waiting list and will be notified when the service is available. As for infrastructure, EarthLink has deployed Tropos Networks' MetroMesh Wi-Fi routers on light poles throughout the city to form a wireless mesh that is operated and optimized using Tropos Control and Tropos Insight, a suite of end-to-end configuration, monitoring and maintenance tools. EarthLink also uses Motorola's MOTOwi4 portfolio of products, including the Canopy high-speed backhaul and Wi-Fi mesh network equipment. EarthLink Inc. Wi-Fi www.earthlink.net/wifi Motorola Inc. www.motorola.com Tropos Networks www.tropos.com -- Regards, Peter RAD-INFO, Inc. - NSP Strategist We Help ISPs Connect & Communicate 813.963.5884 http://4isps.com/newsletter.htm -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
