For me, personally in our area, 3650 is attractive because of the lack of noise. We are saturated with 2.4 and 5GHz here, but if I was in an area with low noise levels in 2.4 and 5Ghz, then I would not see a point in spending the extra money to deploy 3650 gear. I personally don't care that much about WiMax itself, as I tend to agree that a lot of it is marketing hype. We have a city-wide (NOT Muni) 802.11 hotspot system that generates a fair amount of revenue for us with roaming users connecting with their laptops. 3650 won't do that because I doubt we will be seeing laptops with built-in 3650 cards anytime soon (though I could be wrong).
You can easily pull 10-20meg through 5.8 gear in low noise, good LOS environments. We're doing 10meg in an area that is saturated with 5.8. I'm looking at 3650 SOLELY because of our noise floor. If it wasn't for the noise, I'd keep plugging along hanging Deliberant 2.4 and 5Ghz CPE's all over the place. Ideally, what I'm moving toward is putting 3650 gear in place for my large backhauls (tower to tower) and for my high-end customers that require higher availability and are willing to pay a premium price (i.e. businesses that want to go all VoIP over a 20meg Internet connection), while maintaining my current networks with their 5Ghz and 2.4 AP locations, although much of the 5Ghz backhaul would be replaced with 3650 gear. Anyway, this is just me. I'm sure a lot of folks have different views and different opinions though, and maybe there is a purpose and need for Wimax itself, but for me, I have yet to see what the big deal is. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Wyble Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 12:08 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: [WISPA] 3650Mhz and Wimax Vendors So the recent thread on Wimax was quite interesting. I need to read up on the different technologies involved. I believe that a fixed deployment is sufficient for many many many needs and markets (wireless local loop if you will). If people want mobility/end user wireless they can hang an 802.11 AP off the ethernet port of whatever CPE. Wimax directly to the end device doesn't make much sense to me, in most markets and use cases. Obviously if you are supporting a highly mobile workforce (say public sector type stuff) then it makes a lot more sense. It got me thinking... if one was a new WISP entering an un(der)served market, it seems that it would not make sense to deploy standard 802.11 gear, but rather Wimax gear in 3650Mhz. Is this an accurate assessment? One particular area that I'm targeting, doesn't have any broadband available (other then 3g from Verzion). So they would need to purchase CPE anyway, and it wouldn't be anything they could get from Best Buy (DSL or Cable modem). I'm in the process of negotiating access to the excluded areas (in Southern California), but it's been slow going. Once I gain access it will open up many areas to some sorely needed competition. So who are the vendors in this space worth considering? What are peoples experiences with the sales process (both pre and post sales engineering) etc etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
