by Alex Goldman
The plains have been hit by massive snowfall, and the Southeast will get the snow soon. Our thoughts are with WISPA members located in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.
Brough Turner has some interesting thoughts about the future of cellular broadband. If you have not heard of him, he’s one of the most important Wi-Fi people you have not heard of.
Two key Brough thoughts for WISPA members:
“Femtocells will flop. They do provide a way to extend voice coverage into homes that macro cells don’t reach, but they are not efficient for data offload. Since Wi-Fi is efficient for data offload, and it costs less to buy and less to operate, Wi-Fi is will trump Femtocells.”
“Wi-Fi is consistently ahead of the 4G community in commercial deployments of ‘4G technologies.’ Specific 4G technologies that Wi-Fi has pioneered include OFDM modulation (802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n), MIMO (802.11n) and beam forming (done via antenna element selection as early as 2002; and done via antenna arrays with on-silicon signal processing under 802.11n, coming to market right now).”
Business
Harris Stratex renamed itself Aviat Networks. The equipment maker now offers network management (for WiMAX ISP Open Range, for example) and a wider variety of hardware.
The township of Salisbury, NC is building a fiber network.
FairPoint is fighting a stimulus application by GWI, gleaning the scorn of Karl Bode.
From the WISPA lists
Travis Johnson started an interesting discussion on the lists by pointing out that many cellular carriers now offer an unlimited voice plan and that some are even offering an unlimited data plan. Thread title is “metered billing”.
Stephen Coran pointed out that the USDA announced more stimulus awards.
Coran also noted that the FCC fined a WISP in Puerto Rico $10,000 for violating power limits. I noted that the FCC fined another WISP in Puerto Rico $20,000 in 2006.
Martha Huizenga started an interesting discussion about insuring employees. The thread title is “Contractor question”.
Mike Gilchrist noted that equipment on a tall tower gets in trouble when there’s ice. If the ice has fallen 100 feet or more when it hits the WISP radio, “the results are ugly.”
Applications
Facebook privacy is a big issue. Here are three Facebook settings every user should check now.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster have agreed to merge.
CompTIA recently changed its rules requiring lifetime certifications. While I think re-certifying people is a good idea, the people at SlashDot think it’s a breach of contract.
Identity theft is bad — but it’s even worse for small businesses. Lubbock, Tex.-based PlainsCapital bank decided that the correct response to identity theft was to sue the victim.
Government
Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) wants the government to release more spectrum for wireless (h/t Peter Radizeski).
The state of Massachussetts failed to get its biggest project approved for stimulus funding, but governor Patrick promises to work hard to get it funded in stimulus round 2. The project covers Western Massachussetts, which is rural and far poorer than Boston.
The UK is moving forward with plans to kick file sharers off the internet and to force them to sue to get re-connected.
A verdict in an RIAA lawsuit against a file sharer was recently reduced from $1.92 million to $50,000.
Three green resources, for those interested in the subject: Solar Today magazine, Home Power magazine, and ecoINSITE.
