Thursday, June 20, 2002

Ameritech Needs Help "Wiring" Appalachia For Broadband. Send Broadband Wireless? Four days before the start of the WCA 2002 Convention in Boston, and knowing of all the Broadband Wireless Internet Access technology that will be on display to solve exactly this problem (!!!), seeing this Nando Times article just amused me to no end... Ameritech Fined; Ordered To Wire Appalachia For The Internet   By John McCarthy, Associated Press Writer COLUMBUS, Ohio (June 20, 2002 8:14 p.m. EDT) - The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio's ruling on Thursday to fine SBC Ameritech $8.5 million for inadequate service also includes an order for the state's largest local phone company to help rewire Appalachia for the Internet. The PUCO upheld a Jan. 31 ruling that Ameritech had appealed. In its original ruling, the regulators told Ameritech to open 20 central offices in the southeast Ohio region. But on Thursday, Chairman Alan Schriber said that was not practical. The order requires Ameritech to work with the Governor's Office of Appalachia and its director, Joy Padgett, to bring high-speed Internet capability to the region. (End of fair use excerpt. See the entire article online at http://www.nando.net/technology/story/441493p-3532284c.html) For the $8.5M fine that Ameritech will be paying (the PUCO originally authorized a fine of up to $122M!), not to mention the cost of opening those 20 central offices, would go a very long way towards providing Broadband Internet Access service to Appalachia residents with cost-effective, quick-to-deploy Broadband Wireless Internet Access systems. As in being able to deliver broadband Internet services to the vast majority of Appalachia residents within eighteen months, with better broadband Internet services for a fraction of the cost of upgrading the wiring and constructing additional central offices. Perhaps someone in the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry can quickly extend an invitation to Ameritech, PUCO personnel, and Appalachian development personnel to attend the WCA Conference in Boston (a mere 746 miles, per Mapquest). Thanks to Newshub.com's Technology News for the pointer to this story.  8:49:31 PM

New Story Posted In Stories Section I just discovered a new feature in Radio Userland called "Stories". A Radio Userland "Story" is formatted much the same as a weblog entry, but each Story is a standalone entry. It makes sense, and is particularly applicable to me, as a number of the weblog pieces I've done are (now I realize) inappropriately long. I've added a new link to the links bar at left for Stories (I finally figured out how that's done!) The new story is titled Update On My Experiences With Radio Userland. (You might note that I've begun using inline URLs rather than explicit URLs and I'm seeing how I like it. Cutting Back On Blog Entries - The "usual frantic preparations" have begun for my family and I to depart on Saturday June 22nd for a nine day trip to Boston. That won't leave much time for weblog updates prior to departure. Most of my time in Boston will be consumed with attending the Wireless Communications Association International (WCA) 15th Annual Convention - The Broadband Revolution; Wireless Leads The Way At WCA 2002. The WCA Conventions are seminal events in the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry, and with Broadband Wireless Internet Access gaining more traction in the broadband market than ever before, I expect the 2002 event to be the best yet. I expect to have good access to email while there, and will at least periodically post some updates to the weblog (using the lovely email-to-weblog feature). But the remainder of my time in Boston is family vacation, so this weblog will be a lot more static than it has been the last week. I'll be documenting the goings-on at WCA 2002 for Focus On Broadband Wireless Internet Access and a feature article for Broadband Wireless Business magazine. The "meat" - the in-depth analysis of what I see and learn at WCA 2002 will be in those two venues (gotta pay the bills). There will be a lot more going on at WCA 2002 than just new product announcements. There will be a bevy of FCC officials attending, and I fully expect that some very interesting news will be forthcoming. In Other Broadband Wireless Internet Access News: TowerStream / Aperto Networks - While I'm in Boston, I'll be taking a tour of one of the base stations of a company called TowerStream. TowerStream is very interesting on several levels: They're a successful Wireless ISP They're competing head-to-head with, and winning business from the dominant wireline telecom providers in the area They're using license-exempt spectrum (5 GHz band) They're operating in a very RF-intense metropolitan area (Boston) They're using new-generation purpose-built Broadband Wireless Internet Access equipment They're making good use of the various advantages of their use of Broadband Wireless gives them TowerStream uses Aperto Networks PacketWave equipment, which is pretty amazing. PacketWave enables TowerStream to make effective, reliable use of license-exempt spectrum to provide wireline-quality service at a highly-competitive price. TowerStream sells T-1 speed Internet Access to businesses for $499/month, with installation times of under two weeks. They get customers with some catchy 30-second radio spots. One point to be made here is that TowerStream simply couldn't do what they're doing with "802.11b'ish" equipment. I'll have more to say about TowerStream in a future article. Some Other Notable Upcoming BWIA Conferences and Events: July 9, 2002 - Deploying Broadband Wireless Internet Access In The Real World, St. Louis, MO July 15-18, 2002 - Wireless LAN Deployment Workshop, Dayton, OH (offered approximately monthly through the summer) August 19-20, 2002 - WISP.X - All Wireless ISP, All The Time, Washington, DC September 23-24, 2002 - Wireless Hot Spots Conference And Expo, San Jose, CA (You know that a trend is in full force when it gets its own, dedicated conference... or six) Each issue of Focus On Broadband Wireless Internet Access features the most complete calendar of relevant events in the Broadband Wireless Internet Access industry. Ronja - Build It Yourself Wireless Optical Networking - This will have the Free Space Optical vendors trembling :-) 10 Mbps, cheap, easy-to-obtain parts... What's not to like? http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~clock/twibright/ronja/ (Thanks to Todd Boyle for the pointer) Off Topic: Heard of Doctors Without Borders? How About ComGeeks Without Borders - This is a very, very cool development. Not-for-profit communications specialists that can go into trouble spots knowing a lot about HF, Wi-Fi, satellite comms, etc. Their web page is at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/tsfi/htmle/forcee.htm. The Blue Marble - For years, one of my most prized image files has been a beautiful picture of Earth as seen from space, showing the blue of the oceans and the cloud cover. It has graced my Windows desktops numerous times. I finally found the original source of the image... NASA, of course, and some of the images are available in very high resolution (nearly 10 MB!) digital photographs. The site is called The Blue Marble. Highly recommended! 10:15:53 AM

© Copyright 2002 Steve Stroh.