Here's the reply for all answers.
Look at the name of the association. WISPA. We are not carriers, we Do
Not get listed on the stock-exchange, we do not have money to burn. This
is the reason for our existence. We deliver the goods where these fools
fear to tread. A Microcell with 10 customers is profitable. Follow the
10% rule - 100 people in the community of your AP. People this is Rural
Countryside, where even your Cellphone don't work here most times, but
we do (I have a Skypeout account to make calls). Don't forget your 911
VOIP database. When you call 911 here, you hope the fire truck driver
lives down the road from you. He knows it is the brick house on the
north east corner.
My total area of service does not have a population of 1 million.
Explain the $1,000,000.00 you want me to spend.
Tranzeo and Company got the message - here's a CPE for $5.00 - I'll take
it, can I have twenty (don't know where they are going, but the price is
right (bang,bang,bang, God my head is going to hurt tomorrow - this
brickwall is not giving))
I have Wave rider in the garbage, I have Cirronet in the Garbage, I have
Linksys in the Garbage, I have Engenius in the Garbage. How long have I
been in business as a WISP - since 1999. Now I can guarantee you that if
I had Alvarion/carrier grade vendor some of its models would be in the
garbage. (you know what carrier grades means - VAR Value added reseller
- charge more for the future services you are going to deliver, if
needed). Now Today I climb a tower and replaced a CB3 (that wisps swear
by) with a lowly Hawking HWBA11 (I don't even think Hawkings make them
anymore (damn Everyready Bunny stole the idea - just keep on going....).
All of my CB3's are showing their age. My Tranzeo CPQ's, 6000's and
5.8's are doing fine (Including the one that flew off the vehicle at a
high rate of speed (95kph - thats' what the speedo said) )Forgot it on
the roof - so I'm over 50 - sue me.
Vendor if your equipment don't follow a standard I won't buy it
If your equipment does not offer a ROI in three months max, no way
If your equipment cost more than $300.00 installed no customer wants it
Notice I am still waiting for 900mhz equipment
Oh by the way this is my business, my clients, my area and I learnt the
hard way what is good for my business. (by the time we had learnt how to
use our Cirronet, we had to remove it, the industry had moved on. So I
am thankful for the live I got out of our CB3's and Hawkings. But they
are paid for and we made a "profit". Now we are replacing the radio's
with Tranzeo 6000's and CPQ CPE's, unless we get a NLOS solution with
bandwidth.
End of Ramble, Sorry I took so long, :-)
You have a Good Day now,
Carl A Jeptha
http://www.airnet.ca
office 905 349-2084
Emergency only Pager 905 377-6900
skype cajeptha
Steve Stroh wrote:
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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