Municipal WiFi networks typically costs $100K+ per sq mile. For 100 sq mile coverage, that's $10 million. WiFi requires 30-40 nodes per sq mile, plus lots of backhaul gear. Plus high management, maintenence and power costs.
If 2150 Mhz WiMAX were available -- free -- (like WiFi), then it could average about 3.5 miles range from a basestation (similar to 2.6 Mhz WiMAX). So each base station might cover about 10 sq miles. A 100 sq mile city might only need only 10 towers. Fixed service. If each 2150 Mhz basestation required an expenditure of $50K in gear, then that would be $500K total for 10 towers. It's a lot cheaper than $10 million. Too bad the FCC wants to auction 2150 Mhz off. WiFi created wealth for this country. MuniFi could too. - Sam ------------------------------- > > Probably the most tempting project for the City would be something on > the digital divide axis. They had been talking about making an > investment along those lines a year ago. That would mean deploying in > an area with lower-income folks. > > That said, if the devices still have value, selling some of them on > ebay might be a way to generate some revenue to help fund other parts > of a project. The price that MetroFi's "test" auction of a SkyExtender > thingie ended up at was $750, but at higher volumes I'd expect that > price to go down as market demand is satisfied. I call it a "test" > auction because they only put up one device (out of ~2000 they had > deployed) and set a reserve that wasn't met. My guess is they were > just testing the market to see what people were willing to pay, and > never intended to actually sell them that way. > > Gutting them for the radios would be a last resort. There are 2 > radios in each one that sell new for about $100. > > That all assumes that we get ahold of them, of course, and that they > are recovered in working condition. > > > -- > Russell Senior, Secretary > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > -- Sam Churchill (www.dailywireless.org) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ The Personal Telco Project - http://www.personaltelco.net/ Donate to PTP: http://www.personaltelco.net/donate Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.wireless.portland.general/ Etiquette: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MailingListEtiquette List information: http://lists.personaltelco.net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
