>I do see Travis's point about the longer range shots, however. I've >got a 35, 45 and 65 mile shots with StarOS and they work just fine but >only put out about 18-25meg at those distances. That's enough for me, >but I can see where you would want more capacity and I suppose that >within that narrow definition, a PTP600 would be better than a licensed >link.
Make no mistake, the PTP600, even though it's almost 5 years old, is still one (if not the) best UL radio on the market from a pure technological perspective -- no other radio has it's combination of 1024FFT OFDM, Space-Time-Coding, MIMO, etc Makes you wonder what planet Motorola / Orthogon raided to get the engineers who built that radio =) And I'm sure many on the list can attest to the wonderful things that a PTP600 does / can do However, the discussion has to come back to the reality that we don't work for the government (and can't print money or write stimulus bills on a whim), and as a result, have to figure out a way to make a buck so we can feed the dog, buy gas, pay for those ski trips in Utah... That said, we get back to "bang for buck" or "good enough" True, the PTP600 will generally work for all scenarios, but it's akin to killing a bug with a nuclear warhead -- it's a lot more cost effective (and there's less collateral damage) if you just step on it with your shoe So, for the 1% of times when you need to shoot 50+ miles while bouncing off 2 different mountains, the PTP600 will be your best bet But for the other 90% of the time, when you have a 10-20 mile shot and want something that reliable, carrier-class, and interference / spectrum isn't an issue, many are using Mikrotiks / StarOS / Trango Atlas / name your own cheap but decent proprietary Atheros-based system out there Now, I'm personally extremely cheap, but the argument is over because you can't just look at up-front price because long-term cost is just as (if not more) important when talking about WISP networks That said, being a slow day, it's worth exercising one's mind to analyze possible "what-if" alternative situations -- bear with me here and follow my logic here... The MOST VALUABLE ASSET of any WISP is HIGH POWER MULTIPOINT SPECTRUM (b/c ultimately, it's the only thing that generates revenue, and like it or not, the #1 determinant in valuing a WISP, or any business for the matter, is EBITDA) In optimal conditions, there's 125 MHz of clean spectrum (6 channels) Assuming you can make $5k / month per AP (or channel) -- as spectrum gets limited, the decision will ultimately boil down to 1. Pay $2k for a cheap Atheros based backhaul to bring 30 Mb to your tower and lose 1 channel (or $5k / month in revenue) 2. Run that backhaul in turbo mode, get 50 Mb at your tower, and now lose 2 channels (or $10k / month in revenue) 3. Pay an extra $10k for a LICENSED BACKHAUL that frees up more spectrum for multipoint, and never have to worry about interference on your backhaul ever again -- and make an extra $5-10k / month b/c you can add more customers on your tower Some food for thought =) -Charles -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
