Steve,
I actually read your arcticle this time, and have a further response.
I agree with a large part of what you wrote. Although it may be unpopular or
discouraging with many WISPs, it brings up some fair valid arguements and
likely outcomes.
My response is... Life is hard, and chances are small, but that has never
stopped WISPs before. Our businesses have always been about beating the
odds. If there is something we want, we go after it. Who would have ever
predicted that we could win 3650? It happened. What seperates you as a
writer from WISPs, is that you can sit back and take a broad objective view,
and tell it like you see it. WISPs on the other hand, don't do that. If they
did, there would be no WISPs today, they would have done the safe thing and
invested in Real Estate 5-10 years ago instead. WISPs are visionaries.
700Mhz spectrum is like "Freedom" to a WISP operator. The WISP's fight for
a peice of Licensed 700Mhz Spectrum has to occur, its worth fighting for.
What I disagree with is... You made reference to difficulty in gettiung cost
effect equipment to use the 700 spectrum, but yet suggest a focused effort
on WhiteSpaces. That is contradictory. TV WhiteSpace will be VERY
difficult to get equipment for. It will likely need very Smart Cognative
Radios to pull it off. A complete redesign of a chipset, to listen for
devices it would interfere with, before broadcasting. Skipping around
portions of the band. Antennas likely would be as large or even larger than
700Mhz. TV WhiteSpace use is also almost 2 years out, the 700Mhz fight is
here this month.
I fully agree that TV Whitespace is the TOP most important issue for WISPs
to fight for. But we have time for that, and in no way does that exclude us
from inserting some time this month to fight for an urgent issue demanding
immediate attention, Licensed 700Mhz.
And who says, that small WISPs that win their Auctions can't also offer
Public Safety, Shared Public/Private Networks, with the Spectrum? Or who
says that the WISP won;t coordinate with the Adjacent Public Safety Spectrum
Holders to reduce interference? The truth is its the Public Safety Spectrum
holders that are at RISK. They Know that if WISPs win 700 Mhz LIcensed, they
have just as high a chance at winning Governement Bids for Public Safety
Networks, using the spectrum they won.
Lastly... Cost to make equipment. 700Mhz is much easier to build for,
because it does not require a bunch of extra Smart Cognative technology
built in. I'd like to point out two recent radio designs. First, Trango's
Atlas 5.5Ghz platform, that more or less uses a 2.4Ghz Wifi Chipset, and
then a frequency converter to 5.8Ghz, and Smart Firmware. Its how they got a
radio CPE down to $150. Now take a Look at Ubiquiti's 900Mhz mpci radio
card, that uses a similar approach. Loook how quickly Ubiquitit added 4.9G
and 3.6Ghz radios to their platform of mPCI cards. Licensed 700Mhz, could
use these Wifi chipset designs for cost effective equipment. It would take
no time at all for Ubiquiti to adapt its 900Mhz card for 700Mhz. And ADI
Metro SBCs could easilly handle the power required to feed them.
So in summary my point is.... WISPS will not have a problem quickly
deploying 700Mhz Licensed, if they manage to get teh spectrum. But wining
the Auctions in the first place, will be the tough battle.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
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