I agree that many WISPs have panned muni wi-fi instead of leveraging their expertise. WISPs were arguably best positioned initially to address this need. Smart VARs and resellers got busy though and whether WISPs realize it, almost all the VARs that serve the WISP community now have a muni engagement. It is just a business reality.
For us, the muni space is actually several markets, sometimes mixed together -- the muni public safety and the low cost civic access sides. On the civic access side, our play is to be the best-of-breed multipoint backhaul into the mesh clouds. Moto got a good early start on this, but we are on their heels now and BreezeACCESS VL now performs the job much better technically, architecturally, and economically than Canopy. VL also now has a cable that allows direct connect into the light pole power. Patrick Leary AVP Marketing Alvarion, Inc. o: 650.314.2628 c: 760.580.0080 Vonage: 650.641.1243 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Scrivner Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 6:22 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Ma Bell's About Face On Muni-WiFi Many WISPs have been too busy trashing the Muni-WiFi concept to look at the opportunities. Who can blame AT&T for taking advantage when most WISPs turned up their noses. It is not too late for WISPs to get a foothold in the Muni-WiFi arena if they try. Turning up their noses at the idea will not win them any contracts though. The most important thing to understand is that getting access to light poles and electrical power is golden. The street light based wireless broadband platform will change over time. Eventually a platform will emerge that will work well. There are many people who are aggressively making headway toward building real carrier class wireless broadband operating off of street lights. I have 4 nodes being installed on street lights this morning. I see a day when these nodes will have GigE backhaul capacity with redundant paths all through the air. WiMAX distribution to homes and businesses will be the norm. This is going to happen. Scriv Peter R. wrote: > http://techdirt.com/articles/20060829/190813.shtml > > > Ma Bell's About Face On Muni-WiFi > > > from the /is-that-about-face,-or-just-two-faced?/ dept > > Remember the good old days of... well, last year, when telcos were > telcos and they absolutely hated muni-WiFi? It was such a huge threat > to their business that they gave Congress people plenty of money to > make it illegal. Of course, that was before they actually bothered > looking at many of the muni-WiFi proposals, and recognized they > weren't really "government-run" at all, but were really no different > than traditional telco deals. The government was simply giving away > rights of way for placing equipment in return for promises of service. > The providers could still be commercial providers with real business > models. Suddenly, the industry opposition quieted down. Industry > associations claimed that muni-WiFi was great... and AT&T (whose > former employee introduced the bill to ban muni-WiFi) was seen > providing the very same "free, tax-supported" WiFi they had screamed > about just months before. Well, congrats to AT&T for all that hard > work trying to stop muni-WiFi. You've just won another muni-WiFi deal > (this one without taxpayer funding). Of course, for those of you who > thought that muni-WiFi would give consumers an alternate provider, > offering real competition to the incumbent telco... well, that doesn't > really work so well when that alternate provider is the telco itself. > > -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ ************************************************************************ ************ This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses(191). ************************************************************************ ************ ************************************************************************ ************ This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses(42). ************************************************************************ ************ ************************************************************************************ This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses. ************************************************************************************ -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
