Carl Ford
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Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency
Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...
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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction
In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...
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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call
Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...
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IGEL Advances Future of Work
IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...
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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN
Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...
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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War
Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...
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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise
Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...
Full Story »Taking a Deeper Look at the Clearwire Deal -- Again
November 24, 2008
With the shareholder approval finally taken care of, the massive deal to build a new nationwide WiMax network under the Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) name can (finally!) now begin in earnest. While those of us who have been following the events over the past year know pretty much what is on Clearwire's immediate to-do list, for those who are playing catch-up may we suggest you order the new, updated version of our WiMax report, which includes a comprehensive study of the "new" Clearwire WiMax deal and its $3.2 billion of investment from a group that includes Google, Comcast, Intel and Time Warner Cable.
When you read the report you will learn:
-- The new opportunities and challenges for Clearwire's national focus, which is a departure from previous plans
-- The motivations for Google's $500 million investment, which go beyond business goals for search and mobility to include public-policy goals
-- Why the big telcos, AT&T and Verizon, may not see WiMax as a prime competitor (even as they step up marketing and lobbying efforts to make life harder for WiMax)
-- Why cable providers like Comcast may be looking to WiMax to expand their user footprint beyond its current regulatory limits
The report also contains a WiMax technical and historical backgrounder, as well as an updated look at the WiMax business opportunities for enterprises, investors and entrepreneurs in markets including mobile Internet businesses, software development, and mobile device manufacturing. Titled "Game On, WiMax! Why the "new" Clearwire gives WiMax its best chance at success in the U.S.
When you read the report you will learn:
-- The new opportunities and challenges for Clearwire's national focus, which is a departure from previous plans
-- The motivations for Google's $500 million investment, which go beyond business goals for search and mobility to include public-policy goals
-- Why the big telcos, AT&T and Verizon, may not see WiMax as a prime competitor (even as they step up marketing and lobbying efforts to make life harder for WiMax)
-- Why cable providers like Comcast may be looking to WiMax to expand their user footprint beyond its current regulatory limits
The report also contains a WiMax technical and historical backgrounder, as well as an updated look at the WiMax business opportunities for enterprises, investors and entrepreneurs in markets including mobile Internet businesses, software development, and mobile device manufacturing. Titled "Game On, WiMax! Why the "new" Clearwire gives WiMax its best chance at success in the U.S.
WiMAX: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times...
November 20, 2008A new report has just come out from Informa, and the findings have the report's author channeling Dickens. "It's the best and worst of times for WiMAX," says Mike Roberts, principal analyst at Informa, and author of WiMAX Broadband Convergence: Emerging Fixed, Portable & Mobile Internet Markets - 2nd Edition. According to Roberts: WiMAX is a tale of two markets - one being WiMAX as an emerging technology gaining significant momentum in the last year, and the other being the larger converging broadband market, where the runaway success of rival mobile broadband system HSDPA and the acceleration of LTE threatens the opportunity for WiMAX in some markets. On the WiMAX side of the ledger, we find the launch of services by major operators such as Sprint/Clearwire, commitments to WiMAX by major proponents such as Google, and the long-awaited arrival of WiMAX notebooks and other devices. On the flip side, HSDPA has reportedly become a runaway success in many markets worldwide, and emerging LTE technology is ramping up and has secured the support of many major mobile operators. Of course it remains to be seen what will be written in the final chapter of this "tale of two markets." It's clear that we all have great expectations, and while in telecom there is always ample opportunity for at least two market entrants, it's a distinct possibility that for one of these two combatants, it will indeed be a bleak house.
White Space in the White Mountains
November 20, 2008
When you get away from the yellow spots on a map, the odds are likely you are going to be confronted with very little to watch on TV. Three stations and one cable affiliate station does not make for a competitive environment. The utilization of white space spectrum should allow for rural areas to have some advantages when trying to avoid interference.
Now the question is, will that be how White Space gets deployed. Will the product lines developed for white space be products with out a service provider model? Some friends I had who lived in glen of the mountain and was one of 30 houses on a road next to the stream is the terrain I think of when thinking about this technology.
Sometimes you could watch the morning fog hide their home and the mountain top was clear other times the clouds would look like a sombero shadowing the mountain. Woods, clouds, mountains, lakes and streams make for difficult antenna strategies and we may see a lot of adjunct antennas being sold to support the use of white space spectrum in different situations. Kansas, Rocky Mountains, White Mountains of New Hampshire, probably have a lot of trial and error ahead.
It may be that local integrators become established that allow the homes to mesh, more likely we will still a service provider model.
My own personal view is that the service would be a great business for those local stations to augment their business. But it takes a while for groups to get into the if you cant beat them join them mode.
One thing I am not sure I like is the idea of an ICANN for white spaces. If its an issue of having addressing, I would like to see IPv6 be the model for the deployment.
So while the technology has been approved there is a white space on the board of how it will be deployed.
Now the question is, will that be how White Space gets deployed. Will the product lines developed for white space be products with out a service provider model? Some friends I had who lived in glen of the mountain and was one of 30 houses on a road next to the stream is the terrain I think of when thinking about this technology.
Sometimes you could watch the morning fog hide their home and the mountain top was clear other times the clouds would look like a sombero shadowing the mountain. Woods, clouds, mountains, lakes and streams make for difficult antenna strategies and we may see a lot of adjunct antennas being sold to support the use of white space spectrum in different situations. Kansas, Rocky Mountains, White Mountains of New Hampshire, probably have a lot of trial and error ahead.
It may be that local integrators become established that allow the homes to mesh, more likely we will still a service provider model.
My own personal view is that the service would be a great business for those local stations to augment their business. But it takes a while for groups to get into the if you cant beat them join them mode.
One thing I am not sure I like is the idea of an ICANN for white spaces. If its an issue of having addressing, I would like to see IPv6 be the model for the deployment.
So while the technology has been approved there is a white space on the board of how it will be deployed.
Qualcomm gets off the UMB sidetrack and embraces LTE
November 18, 2008
Having lunch with our future speaker Dr. Hyung G. Myung from Qualcomm, I get the impression that LTE is in good hands. Mr. Myung is working the Single Carrier technologies I mentioned in my first post on this site.
But this is CDMA (George Gilders dream team) Qualcomm! They acquired Flarion and have been the advocates of UMB ultra mobile broadband as a standard. Why in the world are they LTE now?
The answer is in the evolution part. Twenty years ago before the Internet, the ability to have geographically separate standards was possible. Now the Partners of 3GPP clearly understand that they are going to be delivering the same platform eventually and it's the Wireless Internet.
So the CDMA world is going to blend into the rest of 4G via the LTE side of the equation. But wait there is more.
Qualcomm is building something they have called Kayak. It's not a phone. It's a computing device. And they are with Adobe on the Open Screen Project.
So while I am continually trying to understand if the device in my future is a computer that communicates or a phone that computes, this device sound like a good compromise.
But this is CDMA (George Gilders dream team) Qualcomm! They acquired Flarion and have been the advocates of UMB ultra mobile broadband as a standard. Why in the world are they LTE now?
The answer is in the evolution part. Twenty years ago before the Internet, the ability to have geographically separate standards was possible. Now the Partners of 3GPP clearly understand that they are going to be delivering the same platform eventually and it's the Wireless Internet.
So the CDMA world is going to blend into the rest of 4G via the LTE side of the equation. But wait there is more.
Qualcomm is building something they have called Kayak. It's not a phone. It's a computing device. And they are with Adobe on the Open Screen Project.
So while I am continually trying to understand if the device in my future is a computer that communicates or a phone that computes, this device sound like a good compromise.
Sprint, Clearwire Get Set to Merge
November 11, 2008
Thanks to the FCC's approval, the clock is now really ticking forward on the Sprint-Clearwire merger that will create the "New" Clearwire and its nationwide WiMax network. While we still need to see a Clearwire shareholder vote later this month, the number everyone wants to know -- how many folks have signed up for Xohm services in Baltimore -- is still unknown, since neither Sprint nor Clearwire reported any Xohm user numbers in their recent respective earnings calls.
There were some WiMax nuggets, however -- one from Sprint's report last Friday said that the company spent $134 million in capex on WiMax during the quarter, we are guessing probably not all in Baltimore but in some soon-to-launch markets as well.
On the Clearwire side, the company all but stopped promoting its previous "WiMax-like" service, signing up just 8,000 new subscribers during the most-recent quarter. However, on the mobile WiMax side Clearwire said its Portland, Ore., network is ready for an "official" launch in Q1 2009 (though it will probably be working before the end of the calendar year) and that it also successfully tested the implementation of a mobile WiMax overlay in one of its previous technology markets. Having lots of spectrum is what will let Clearwire upgrade its past markets to mobile WiMax without having to rip out the earlier technology.
There were some WiMax nuggets, however -- one from Sprint's report last Friday said that the company spent $134 million in capex on WiMax during the quarter, we are guessing probably not all in Baltimore but in some soon-to-launch markets as well.
On the Clearwire side, the company all but stopped promoting its previous "WiMax-like" service, signing up just 8,000 new subscribers during the most-recent quarter. However, on the mobile WiMax side Clearwire said its Portland, Ore., network is ready for an "official" launch in Q1 2009 (though it will probably be working before the end of the calendar year) and that it also successfully tested the implementation of a mobile WiMax overlay in one of its previous technology markets. Having lots of spectrum is what will let Clearwire upgrade its past markets to mobile WiMax without having to rip out the earlier technology.
WiMax Wardrivers Won't Wait
November 10, 2008
Pretty funny to see the "WiMax Wardrivers" emerging, as geeks start finding networks before they're ready. Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny fame is the latest entrant, using some Baltimore Xohm hardware to start surfing on the yet-to-be-formally-opened Washington D.C. Xohm network.
Since he's the only (illegal) one on the net, so far speeds are pretty darn good, according to Dave. But don't be too surprised if the Sprint police hunt him down and shut him off -- we haven't heard any warnings yet but Dan Jones over at Unstrung is passing the word that those who try surfing before the new wireless beach is open might get shut down from time to time. (And we know from personal experience that the Chicago Xohm network is running pretty well already.)
Just one of the inconveniences of getting in ahead of the crowds, eh?
Since he's the only (illegal) one on the net, so far speeds are pretty darn good, according to Dave. But don't be too surprised if the Sprint police hunt him down and shut him off -- we haven't heard any warnings yet but Dan Jones over at Unstrung is passing the word that those who try surfing before the new wireless beach is open might get shut down from time to time. (And we know from personal experience that the Chicago Xohm network is running pretty well already.)
Just one of the inconveniences of getting in ahead of the crowds, eh?
FCC Green-Lights Globalstar for Rural WiMAX
November 6, 2008
Rich Tehrani has a must-read post today about technology and the opportunity for an Obama administration to embrace tech like no previous administration.
One of the things Rich highlights is Obama's pledge to maintain an open Internet and ensure that broadband gets into the hands of rural Americans.
Well as this TMC Newsroom video report shows, the FCC has approved a modified license proposal from Globalstar, paving the way for the California-based satellite Internet operator to deploy WiMAX-based wireless broadband services to more rural communities across the United States.
According to Jay Monroe, CEO and chairman of Globalstar:
"Those living in underserved small towns and rural communities will, for the first time, have access to services that urban and suburban residents and small businesses now take for granted. FCC action is an important step in closing the digital divide in America.
The FCC hopes to support WiMAX-based wireless broadband coverage in 546 rural communities by 2013.
