Kimo- please explain what Webnetic is.
Numbering my responses to Kimo's questions: 1. Right now, a handful of cities (I think they are the 3 Metro-Fi cities in Silicon Valley, plus Mtn View) are getting 1Mb. This is totally dependent of the depth of the pockets of Metro-Fi's backers and on the advertising revenues. Ever play with a puppy in a pet store? They are so cute, you just have to take it home. If the business model doesn't pay out i.e.: They don't get enough paying subscribers or they don't get the revenue from the ads, then you will see it change. Not saying that was Metricom's demise, but they had few users and any Metro network takes gobs of money to build out. I've seen it first hand... With this model and with the equipment that will be used in SF. It ain't free and it ain't cheap! 2. So Seattle will have it in 10 years. By then, there will be something bigger and better. Will the SF residents have to wait 10 years too? Not something I'd be willing to do- especially when I was faced with a proposal from someone who will do it for free and assume all the risk. What has SF got to lose? 3. Milpitas, CA. No tall residential buildings (but some are under construction. A 24-30 ft high access point with the relatively low gain of the Tropos antennas will have a good amount of upward radiation. It isn't that much better of an antenna than a dipole would be. It certainly has little, if any, directional abilities. It may not go up into a 30 story hotel or apartment house, but how many residence in SF are in those? That can easily be the 5 or 10 % allowed not to be covered. Most of my friends in SF live in 2-4 story abodes. According to the web page, the CPE is given with a paid connection anyway, so there's no-one not getting one except for the people taking the freebie. Even if I chose to live in a place that required use of a CPE, it is no different than buying an XM receiver to listen to XM, or buying a transistor radio or boom box to listen to free radio. I really don't see what the whole hoo-ha is about. A company is willing to build this out, for no taxpayer cost- giving away free service that is 6 times faster than dial up. If I lived there and had nothing (or still had dialup) I would jump on it in a heartbeat. Imagine for a moment that EL was to walk away. The city (which will admittedly be one of the hardest in the World to cover) will have no immediate service to compete with cable and phone, much less a free service. It all sounds like a lobby from the telcos and cablecos to me. It is a tempest in a teapot. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kimo Crossman Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 1:17 PM To: wireless@wispa.org; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [WISPA] SF Earthlink study From: "Ralph" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >It is. SF has no financial investment at all. They just get a free >ubiquitous network covering their city, like many other cities already have. >As far as the 300k free tier goes, 300 k is fine if you had nothing. >What do they think, that the dial up people had free dialup already? Other cities are getting 1000kbps free - why not SF? >Fiber to the prem? Ha. In all of SF? Not in my lifetime. Seattle is planning fiber to the home by 2015 >The stuff in there about the $80-200.00 CPE is just bogus. Someone has >fed the authors of that report a line of bull! If the contract with the >City >>says building penetration, then that's what EL has to do. Talking >>about CPEs >is putting the cart before the horse a bit. My experience with another >town they did has been that there is penetration to 95% of that city's >streets, and a good bit inside the homes. What town? Does that town have a lot of tall multiresidential dwellings? I think the issue with CPE is both building penetration in all floors as well as the ability of the computer to send back the response. Even EarthLink in the contract agrees that CPE will probably be needed indoors. -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
