Anyone know any thing about HUD Block grants, these guys qualified for?
Looks like these guys got government funding from three different government
sources, including the feds to deploy broadband.
"one of the most significant WiMAX deployments to date," regional Midwest
service provider Arialink Broadband says it will build out a broadband
wireless network for all of Muskegon County, MI, using 802.16e equipment
from Samsung. Muskegon County borders Lake Michigan. It is about 200 miles
northeast of Chicago and 200 miles northwest west of Detroit. The network is
a public-private partnership funded by a $2.2 million federal grant from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, together with a $4.5 million
loan from the state of Michigan's Economic Development Corporation. Arialink
CEO Jason Schreiber said the company will invest $6 million to build the
network, aiming to provide Internet access at speeds of 3 Mbps at a cost of
$18.99 a month."
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Stroh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Best system for a new WISP
John:
Here's my working definition of "carrier grade":
Designed for use by carriers
Suitable for use by carriers
Sufficiently reliable for use by carriers
There is MUCH that goes into a product designed for use by carriers. It's
expensive and a tough market, so a lot of vendors don't try. Here are just
a few features that are "carrier grade requirements" from my perspective:
* Designed for use in all conceivable weather elements
* Designed for long operational use with minimal attention (in the WISP
market, one measure is that it doesn't reboot itself, or require regular
reboots)
* Designed for easy and fast repair
* The vendor stocks ample replacement units deployed geographically for
fast supply.
* Support expertise by the vendor is readily available (excellent,
easy-to-access tech support). Note that such support is almost never free,
and carriers don't expect it to be. When they need help, they need it NOW
and need to get their systems back online fast. (Carriers often have
mandated time-to-repair maximums by regulatory agencies.)
* Subtle features like strain relief on all connectors, meeting the
telecom industry requirements for rack mounting, built-in protection for
power line surges and lightning.
* Superb monitoring and remote control capabilities
* Offer continuous VERY-in-depth training programs at the factory so that
carriers can get their personnel FULLY up to speed on a product. Again,
this almost never free, and carriers don't expect it to be.
* Offer continuous product improvement, bug fixes, recalls when
appropriate, and does so proactively when an issue is identified, and does
so in a way to minimize downtime such as offering proactive replacement
units.
Etc.
Regarding "Alvarion versus WISPs"... it's pretty simple. By offering "more
like carrier-grade" products, Alvarion saw FAR more market demand by
carriers, public safety, enterprise than they saw in the WISP market. They
are willing to sell to WISPs, but few WISPs are willing to take the time
to truly understand Alvarion's value proposition which involves FAR more
than mere price of the product. You've finally come around to this view
John, and you'll discover that you have a lot of company in that view -
which isn't (widely) represented on this list or necessarily within WISPA.
That's because operators who have spent the money for quality gear like
Alvarion's generally don't have NEARLY as many issues with such gear that
require "group support"... and such operators don't wish to associate
their businesses with the "we'll just hack up a Linksys AP and have cheap
gear" attitude that a lot of people in the telecom industry equate with
WISPs.
Is Alvarion arrogant? Yes, at times, and certain individuals. But I think
that's mostly a lot of pride and recognition that they were one of the
pioneering companies in making it possible to offer carrier-grade services
in license-exempt spectrum - something that the telecom industry KNEW
could NOT be done. It's also the case that Alvarion offers the broadest
product line in Broadband Wireless Internet Access - licensed and
license-exempt, fixed and mobile, high-capacity and low-capacity, etc.
Alvarion has very capable competitors in various segments, but I can't
think of any company that competes head-to-head with Alvarion in all
segments, even Airspan.
Thanks,
Steve
On Apr 11, 2006, at 20:51, John Scrivner wrote:
I decided to do some reading on the term "carrier-grade" and have found
the following to be what is considered a definition in relation to our
industry. One random source on the web refers to this as, "A term that
implies a system that is designed to have increased availability and
timeliness to meet the requirements of a modern communications network
element." I saw this quantified on one site as being, a network device
which has a sustained uptime of over 99.999%. This was as close to a
quantifiable definition as I have found though it gives no length of time
or other parameters to use for calculation of this percentage. According
to Hughes Software Systems in regard to "Carrier-grade" they state that
equipment can only be considered "Carrier-grade" after several years of
real field use shows that it is highly available and reliable. In the end
it is a very subjective term and one I will not use in the future unless
I can quantify the classification. Basically there is no firm definition
but I have heard of Alvarion referred to as "Carrier-grade" by others and
mistakingly assumed it was a clearly defined characteristic. My apologies
for this error in wording.
With that said I still think Alvarion is a far better platform than
Canopy which is strictly my opinion and has no basis in fact. In the past
I have been put-off by a perceived arrogance I have seen by some Alvarion
representatives who have insisted previously that they had the "only"
viable solution for wireless broadband and seemed as though they were
claiming almost a "holier than thou" behavior toward anyone stating
another opinion than their own. I have also seen a terribly biased
negative attitude toward Alvarion by many WISPs who wanted to drive home
the "WISP=Cheap" mentality to the point of alienating Alvarion from our
entire market segment. Both Alvarion and most WISPs have lost a great
ally in each other and I suspect both sides have suffered from such
negativity. I am hoping to see this division closed between the typical
WISP operator and Alvarion.
---
Steve Stroh
425-939-0076 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.stevestroh.com
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