Marlon, et al, First full disclosure: I am currently a full time consultant to Aperto, so I obviously carry some degree of a bias.
Marlon, I am not sure which products you are referring to, but I suspect it is the old PacketWave products, all of which have been discontinued. Aperto today markets only one type of product: PacketMAX. While we have a strong 802.16e product in beta, PacketMAX is today an 802.16d product, which is designed for and optimized for fixed environments. In the U.S., PacketMAX supports all 5 GHz frequencies, as well as the 3.65 GHz band. These are all bands we likely agree are fixed in nature, so 802.16d is the correct version of WiMAX for these bands. 802.16e may have some future (I've learned to be much less hopeful for its efficacy as an accepted future mobile solution...actually, I am now a skeptic who believes the market forces will render it a deep back seat to LTE), but for fixed as it relates to WiMAX, 802.16d is the best of the WiMAX standards. The e version injects to much overhead and latency. Using e in a completely fixed environment is somewhat like trying to argue a sports car makes the best cargo hauler. But, this is not the main reason for my response... Aperto certainly had some big challenges in the transition from PacketWave to PacketMAX. Many of the issues were legacy and related to management decisions on what markets to focus on and accordingly what bands and solution types. Marlon, since you have visited, management has changed, including replacement of the former CEO to one who is much more pragmatic, realistic and U.S. focused. Our new CEO, Brian Deutsch (who is in large part why I joined), "gets" the U.S. opportunity and especially understands what Aperto can be and more importantly, what it can NOT be. Brian knows Aperto will not be the company to win major carrier business, nor should it. With the team, he has made big changes in how the company functions and responds, and with it many changes to how products are decided upon and delivered to the market, and who manages it. Recently, we made sure all product decisions and management and core work on PacketMAX 802.16d has been moved from India back to the U.S., where the core intelligence, executive visibility and competency exist. This is a decision I highly support. As part of this, we have had our most senior technical staff making long trips to key customers to live in their environments for a bit to learn how they work and the issues they face. We've taken these findings and converted them into actions plans that have been already put into work and resulted in major changes. PacketWave is long gone now and that product bear little resemblance to PacketMAX, both in architecture and functionality. No more two cables up for instance. It is now 100% IF at the base station and PoE at the CPE. The QoS functionality is excellent. The NMS has been changed to permit local mode support and a wide range of other "must have" features identified by U.S. customers. The PacketMAX 802.16d product is a sound, high value, moderately priced solution with rich features and functionality. It is a living product (unlike what some competitiors might claim), undergoing continuing evolution and R&D. When I was at Alvarion, I was indoctrinated to believe that d was a dead end. I have since learned that was entirely and view centric to Alvarion and others solely focused on e, because for THEM, that is true. But not for us and I think time will prove Aperto right -- d is the best WiMAX standard for fixed and in fact, e has a much less certain future. Marlon, I would invite you to come out and visit the new Aperto -- the one I am now working with. Examine the solutions. Test drive it. You learn a whole new view and I hope you'll appreciate that I would never tie my cart to a horse that I did not have confidence could strongly pull the cart. Your friend, Patrick Patrick Leary Aperto Networks 813.426.4230 mobile -----Original Message----- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2009 10:00 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Anybody use Aperto for 3.65GHz? I'd like to know whatyouthink. I have heard NOTHING good about their product's reliability. I have one consulting customer that's still using them, his failure rates are shocking. I'd have dumped them years ago. Unless this changes I'd stay far far away from Aperto. (I've been to the Ca. offices and like the people that run the show, but that doesn't help my customers at all.) marlon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat O'Connor" <p...@inlandnet.com> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 2:29 PM Subject: [WISPA] Anybody use Aperto for 3.65GHz? I'd like to know what youthink. > We're looking to deploy 3.65GHz this year in a couple of different > locations because of interference issues. So far they have the most > compelling price point. I'd like to know how well it works in the > field. All opinions appreciated. Hit me off list if you want to.\ > > Thanks, > > Pat > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------- > WISPA Wants You! 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