Todd, Respectfully, as I noted in my first post, I am exceedingly reluctant to engage in marketing via this forum and it is not my intent. I therefore will not try not to address specific criticisms or endorsement anyone may have regarding Alvarion in this forum (except to say your cost data is way off). My presence here is as an expert on the commercial side of this industry and a hope I can share perspectives perhaps no adequately understood.
I will address your comments as it relates to the industry of unlicensed broadband: The IEEE - the same group that brought you 802.11b (and 802.11 before that) - is currently putting the finishing touches on 80216a, which once ratified will be the first IEEE standard specific to wireless in a MAN (WMAN) environment for bands sub-10GHz. The IEEE teams understand the technical distinctions inherent in a WLAN vs. a WMAN environment. 802.16a seeks to address the reality of the large metropolitan systems covering hundreds of square miles. (You make a note about mesh, well 802.16a includes a mesh option.) Of course ALL current professional unlicensed wireless broadband systems are proprietary -- no standard existed. Instead of waiting and until we had a standard, industry continued to innovate its way through the problems inherent in using any 802.11 derivation in a WMAN application. Respectfully, YOU may not need the features companies like ours and others have enabled. A few thousand commercially operating WISPs however disagree (and the larger they get, the more likely they are to disagree!). Any innovation we have added is a direct result of operator input, not some nefarious attempt to remain proprietary. A problem rears its ugly head that puts a barrier in fornt of an operator, we and others innovate to overcome that barrier. That is the beauty of the free market in operation within the confines of the regulations we find ourselves. Today, it is perfectly possible to erect a single tower that can enable as much as 300 square miles of coverage (in some areas) that can realistically support hundreds of users. To do this with consumer grade Wi-Fi is impossible and would require many times more towers, which means more site leases and more backhauls. A Wi-Fi model would also add hugely to operational costs, require driver support, elimate quality control (therefore putting customer satisfaction at risk and increasing churn). The business economics extend FAR beyond any simplistic discussion of CPE cost, though CPE cost is a critical part of the complete equation. One must account for all the elements of CAPEX. One must address all the billing issues (by time? protocol? apllication? tiers? etc.). One must address customer aquisition costs. Etc. ad nauseum. HOWEVER, the Wi-Fi implementation reigns supreme for the last 100 feet to hotspot users. Such could be transient users (such as the cliche coffee shop, an RV park, an airport, a truck stop, etc.) or they could be semi-fixed subscribers extending the last mile (such as retirement home tenants, boats moored in a marina, dormitory resident students, etc.). Patrick J. Leary Chief Evangelist, Alvarion, Inc. Executive Committee Member, WCA/LEA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 760.494.4717 Cell: 770.331.5849 Fax: 509.479.2374 -----Original Message----- From: Todd Boyle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 1:12 PM To: Patrick Leary; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [BAWUG] Greetings BAWUG (A BWA advocate hopes he is welcomed) At 04:15 PM 11/30/2002, Patrick Leary wrote: >Hello BAWUG, >My name is Patrick Leary. I am known as the Chief Evangelist for Alvarion, >the major wireless broadband vendor. That was an incredibly great post, but what has Alvarion done to realize any P2P community-operated network cloud? You've clearly stated, Alvarion and other proprietary technologies have existed for a long time, better suited for medium-range outdoor links than 802.11b. We need those. And we need mesh routing or at least ad-hoc routing, for more than one hop. I emphatically *reject* your suggestion to wait while "the industry" creates better-engineered stuff. Meanwhile we're all getting captured into huge telco/cableco monopolies, paying them $50, $60 a month, making them stronger and stronger. There will never be any escape, under your suggestion. The internet itself is being destroyed, turned into a top-down selling medium. Alvarion costs $1000 per end--impossible. Wifi APs cost $50 and headed lower, and Alvarion is not 20 times better. We don't need gold-plated stuff, we already have enough of that from the Telcos (5ESS switches) Respectfully, Todd Boyle CPA - Kirkland WA http://www.gldialtone.com/whyP2Pwireless.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the originator of the message. This footer also confirms that this email message has been scanned for the presence of computer viruses. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender specifies and with authority, states them to be the views of Alvarion Inc. Scanning of this message and addition of this footer is performed by SurfControl SuperScout Email Filter software in conjunction with virus detection software. -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
