Hello Brian- Yes- Many of us were involved in the EL projects. I built their Milpitas, California network. First network to be completely rolled out on time and not in chunks First network with a totally stealthed two Canopy cluster AP site And a few other firsts.
That network is finished, it works, and works well. I had the pleasure of using it again while at Cisco for a big partner meeting three weeks ago. It covers part of Cisco's campus! Ha! It is too bad that EL's business model was a failure and that their CEO who had the wireless vision died suddenly, and that the remaining one thought that EL would be better in the Cellular business (Helio). I was in Portland two weeks ago and noticed the severe lack of Metro-Fi. Will they be the next to go? Ralph -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Scrivner Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 2:10 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] MetroFi - Portland - Uh oh I appreciate your insight Brian. I know your were on the front lines in Philly with Earthlink. I am sure there was much knowledge gained from your involvement there. Thanks for sharing a bit of what you experienced. It is a shame we did not think of having you speak about the Philly project at the upcoming ISPCON. I think the speaking slots have been filled but maybe they could make an exception and add you in. It may be that you are not allowed to do so. If you are allowed to speak about the Earthlink / Philly project then I am guessing this is something that would be much appreciated by all of us. I will let you decide whether you think you would want to do this. If you do then email [EMAIL PROTECTED] so they can discuss this with you. They are building the agenda for the speaking slots at the show. Scriv On Feb 4, 2008 8:34 AM, Brian Webster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > No big surprise here. The problem with the municipal networks that I saw > was the cities that thought they were going to get all this infrastructure > for free. I'm sorry but I don't think you can get enough ad revenue from any > of these networks to support the real cost of building a system properly. In > reality all of these cities should have learned from Verizon and their wi-fi > deployment in New York City. Verizon was never able to build on every phone > booth because they didn't all have power at them. They discovered after > building what they could, that usage patterns emerged. People were only apt > to use the hotspots in locations where they could conveniently fire up their > computers. Municipal mesh networks should do the same. Deploy what I call > "Hot Pods" only in areas that make sense. Residential neighborhoods make no > sense in my opinion. There are many other options for broadband in those > neighborhoods and with the trees typically in those areas, your node density > per user ratio stinks (and your customer per node ratio does as well). That > is what drives up the cost of building these networks. > If a municipality wants ubiquitous coverage all over a city for their > employees to use, then they should be paying a large portion of the cost of > that network. You can't expect someone else to pay for it for you. Wireless > is great but to compete in residential areas over a mesh on 802.11b/g is not > a good business model. With things like FIOS and cable being able to deliver > 3 to 10 times the bandwidth to a customer, mesh does not make sense and the > consumer knows this. Wireless is good for mobility but most users do not > need it everywhere all the time. > No let me really climb up on my soapbox..... As far as free internet > service for citizens, that makes about as much sense as free telephone, > electricity and gas!!!! If they worry about their underprivileged > neighborhoods not have equal opportunity access to the internet, have them > stand around their local library where they already offer this. Unless there > are lines a mile long at the computers, I doubt there is that much of a pent > up need. These same people can somehow find a way to pay $5 a pack for > cigarettes, I don't think $35 a month or less for broadband service that > they can then use to reduce other cost like phone bills will make a > difference. Broadband internet is an essential infrastructure for a > community. That is true. Providing it for free can not be done unless the > municipality is going to foot the bill. All WISP's know it takes money to > deliver bandwidth. Many of these mesh projects were led down the Primrose > path by their internal IT geeks who thought a muni mesh network was as > simple as throwing up a bunch of meraki nodes or flashing some linksys > routers with open source tools. Those Utopian idealists forget to think > about who then bears the cost of delivering the rest of the commercial > internet to their love and hug fest........ <off soap box....lol> > Don't get me wrong, I was the Chief Engineer for EarthLink on the Philly > project. I like the idea of municipal mesh and I know they can work. I just > think many municipalities and some commercial companies needs a reality > check on what it takes in cost to build one. Then they need to examine what > it takes to make a profitable business model from one. Eventually these > networks will be working well and with devices like the IPhone, cellular > carriers will welcome them to offload some of their traffic (roaming > revenue?). Their networks certainly won't be able to shoulder the bandwidth > demand of all the kids watching TV on their phones. Muni mesh networks will > be able to absorb a lot of that demand. It's just time the politicians > realized it costs some long term money to develop this....... I could go on > for hours but I'm know I'm just preaching to the choir on this topic. It's > Monday, guess I needed to vent... :-) > > > > Thank You, > Brian Webster > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Jack Unger > Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 8:45 PM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: [WISPA] MetroFi - Portland - Uh oh > > > > http://wifinetnews.com/archives/008158.html > > > -- > Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. > Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993 > FCC License # PG-12-25133 > Author of the Cisco Press Book - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs" > Vendor-Neutral Wireless Training-Troubleshooting-Consulting > Phone 818-227-4220 Email <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wants You! 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