WiMAX was dead, is dead and will remain dead. OK, not factually true but emotionally true. The cell companies will use WiMax frequencies and technologies but they will be a premium service and not well suited to compete with us for point to multi point fixed wireless. It will never live up to the hype.
All the cell data technologies will remain premium for folks on the go. Cell does not want to squander the bandwidth to go after the value driven customer that love us so much. Cell is and will not be value leader for fixed wireless. technologies. 700 MHz is just not going to be used for anything other than more cell spectrum. The bands are narrow. Good for phone and limited amounts of data. Great propagation. Problem with 700 MHz is that the size of the antenna will be problematic for really small cell phones. Less gain than the current 900 and 1800 antennas for the same physical sizes. Also there will be a few years of implementation due to moving some existing TV stations. And some of them are not moving for some reason. I don't know if they get a special dispensation or what. All ILECs will continue to build out with fiber to the home. That will erode market share for WISPs in some areas. This is a slow and capital intensive process so no reason to get jumpy on that. Plus many folks prefer to deal with us vs a large public traded company. Superior customer service and support will always retain the customer. The cable companies will continue to shoot themselves in the foot and drop the balls. They are sooo freaked out by the erosion of customer base from DirecTV that they are not managing the IP side of the house as well as they could. They will continue to get in a tighter and tighter cash situation from satellite TV pressing from one side and the ILEC FTTH (and us) from the other. In the meantime, we add VOIP, computer repair, data backup, web development, OTA HDTV install and maint, etc as cross sell and up sell opportunities. All of us can offer triple play if we team up with DirecTV or OTA HDTV. OTA HDTV is a wonderful opportunity for the next 18 months for the value conscious customer. Stock UHF TV antennas and converter boxes and help folks get their analog TVs converted over. Less work than a WISP install and you will lock in the customer even more with superior customer service. You can rent them the gear for $5/month and make it a low cost package. In 5 years hopefully your investment will be a cash cow and you will ride this horse until it dies. Perhaps other technologies will come along for us to deploy but I see our segment strong for the next 5 years. In 10 years, if we have not diversified, we will probably be hurting. Oh, and satellite ISP will never do much. Pesky physics. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Hammett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 6:44 PM Subject: [WISPA] Future > What do you see as the future of our industry over the next 5 years? > > AT&T is expanding U-Verse (will this be available outside of town?) > Verizon is expanding FiOS (will this be available outside of town?) > Cable will be using DOCSIS 3 > 3G will gain more steam > WiMAX will have larger and larger shares of the market > 700 MHz will be in use possibly for data communications by the big guys > > > My banker asked me, so I figured I'd see what other's opinions are. > > My thought is that the big guys mentioned above will continue to avoid the > niche that we currently serve and we'll be able to provide better services > with more spectrum (5.4 GHz, additional 2.5 GHz, 3.6 GHz, possibly TV > white spaces) and WiMAX. > > > ---------- > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions > http://www.ics-il.com > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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/
