The spectrum under discussion (according to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, dated May 13, 2004, p. 28) is 76 to 88 MHz, 174 to 216 MHz, 470 to 608 MHz, and 614 to 698 MHz. For WISPs, what’s important about this spectrum is that it’s better than what’s available now.

The spectrum currently available to WISPs is the worst possible spectrum. In their (89 page) response to the FCC (pdf), J.H. Snider and Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation along with their Media Access Project lawyers Harold Feld and Andrew Jay Schwartzmann point out that WISPs have achieved an astonishing amount in this awful spectrum:

“Some commentors in this and other FCC proceedings have argued that unlicensed allocations are somehow inimical to investment and innovation in spectrum technology. The record strongly suggests otherwise. Consider that in the mobile telephone bands, occupying 170 MHz of spectrum, there are at most 25 manufacturers of equipment, whereas in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band, occupying only 83.5 MHz there are at least 500 manufacturers.

Moreover, the mobile telephone bands occupy prime (low frequency) unencumbered spectrum, whereas the unlicensed band is known as the “junk band” because it is shared with hundreds of millions of devices, such as cordless phones and microwave ovens, that emit incidental radiation in this band as a byproduct of their operations.

WISPs know well that a further disadvantage of the 2.4 GHz band (and the reason it’s used by microwave ovens) is that it interacts with water, making trees and other water-filled objects a barrier to signals.

So the spectrum that the FCC is examining is valuable because it could make service possible in areas where it was difficult before, such as rural, wooded valleys or, conversely, dense buildings with a significant amount of plumbing.

Carl Stevenson, chairman of 802.22 says, “Using higher frequencies would require six to eight times as many base stations for equivalent coverage. Nominal base station coverage radius [at 700 MHz] would be 30 to 40 kilometers” [18-25 miles].
WISPA wants all Wireless ISPs to file form 477, the Local Telephone Competition and Broadband Reporting form, which is due March 1st, 2007, so the FCC has a full accounting of their strength.

Bush appointee Kevin Martin generally favors large telecom and cellular companies, perhaps because they’re the ones who pay the bills in law firms such as Richard Wiley’s. Martin may have a certain sense of entitlement — after his duties at the FCC are over — and doesn’t want to mess up his chances by acting like some kind of public policy wonk.

Or is that entirely too cynical?

Related DailyWireless articles include; FCC to Rural Users: 700MHz is the Ticket, White Space Redux, Senate Testimony on 700MHz Sharing, Satellite Repeaters: Grounded in Reality?, McCain Wants Commercial 700 MHz for Police, Soma 700MHz in Wisconsin and Oregon’s $500 Million Statewide Wireless Network.

Newsom announced the project in October 2005, and Google showered the mayor with affection: a trip to Davos in Larry and Sergei’s private jet, and the company offered him campaign contributions. Not surprisingly, Earthlink, Google’s partner which will actually be doing the work, was announced the winner in April last year.

But Earthlink had two formidable obstacles to contend with: a challenging topology for wireless deployment - San Francisco officially has 43 hills - and the city’s taste for political combat.

While Wi-Fi evangelists urged the city not to look a gift horse in the mouth, city supervisors had other ideas.

On January 9th, Supervisor Jake McGoldrick tabled a long overdue motion requesting a cost-benefit analysis. The “free” connection speeds barely met FCC definitions, he said, and were far short of other municipalities 1Gbit/s Wi-Fi connections. Wi-Fi was rapidly obsoleted, he argued, and the city would serve its citizens better with subsidized, city-managed fiber network, with Wi-Fi for a few open areas.

“It is a very slow system that very few people would want to use,” he concluded. McGoldrick’s motion urged the city to restrict the Earthlink deployment to a couple of mile-square test areas. It struck a chord with residents who worried that it was creating a private monopoly.

Two days later, a report prepared for the Supes’ Audit and Oversight Committee by the Budget Analyst concluded that an alternative city-owned fiber project was worth considering. Although it would incur a capital investment of between $6m and $10m, and cost up to $2m a year to run, this could be offset by attracting commercial services. When it’s not hampered by “net neutrality” legislation, an IP pipe provides a viable alternative to cable. Wi-Fi is cheaper, but it doesn’t have such scope for commercial services - it won’t run TV or movies on demand.

(Other cities have been finding Wi-Fi promises don’t match up to reality.)

The BA’s report was flawed however, in that it proposes doing fiber on the cheap; the 1.5Mbit/s domestic connections it costed won’t run IPTV either; while St Paul’s proposed $300m fiber project and Utah’s 100mbit/s Project Utopia will.

For good measure, the report suggested the city “start over”.

Then it emerged that a third of the city’s residents would have to pay between $50 and $100 for a booster. As we noted at the time, the RFP only specified access in street-facing rooms.

The only upside for Newsom is that the debate on whether or not to invest in infrastructure is settled.

But as one Wi-Fi activist told the San Francisco Bay Guardian, “It’s the mayor’s introduction of an insufficient plan that’s causing the situation to become political, when really it’s a technical question… This is no time to be building a white elephant.” ® ]]> http://blogged.originsingapore.com/index.php/archives/29/feed http://blogged.originsingapore.com/index.php/archives/28 http://blogged.originsingapore.com/index.php/archives/28#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:28:09 +0000 Jason complement range spectrum physical 2 4ghz anti reduce worse uwb wifi http://blogged.originsingapore.com/index.php/archives/28 From “UWB could reduce anti-social use of Wifi - when MPs get round to it,” by Clive Akass, Personal Computer World’s “The Test Bed” blog, 17 January 2007:

“Open a laptop anywhere in central (even outer) London and the chances are that you will find four or five Wifi networks within range. There are only three non-overlapping sets of frequencies in the most-used 2.4GHz bands, which means that these networks are certain to be contending with each other - and this using spectrum already crowded with other applications, such as microwave ovens and Bluetooth.

“Next-generation 11n Wifi technology could make the situation worse by extending the range and hogging bandwidth in the process known as channel bonding - equivalent to using two telephone lines instead of one to double throughput.

“At the same time people will be encouraged to start using Wifi to stream high-definition video, meaning channels will be more intensively used and contention will get worse. Wifi is not going to scale up well.

“News of [European Commission] approval of ultrawideband (UWB) technology got submerged in Christmas seasonal spirit, but it could prove a good alternative (or complement) to Wifi. Of course it may turn out to have snags and it may, like Wifi, be hyped into uses for which it is not suitable.

“But it looks promising. Firstly, it is fast: Wireless USB, which replaces the usual physical USB cable with a UWB link, is rated at 480Mbit/sec. Secondly, it is short range, designed for communication within rooms, which maximises the number of possible users in a given area (take note those Wifi vendors who boast of the unneighbourly reach of their products).

“The short range is a problem, too, of course because UWB cannot by itself be used to distribute data around a home or office building. But Wifi is overused for this purpose, with the encouragement of companies that ought to know better. It should, where possible, be used to complement a physical network not replace it.

“We will have to become ever more subtle in our use of spectrum as local wireless network links become even more widespread. As a general principle they should be of the shortest range and at lowest practical power; where a longer range link is necessary, a directional beam should be used to minimise interference with other networks.

“UWB can be used for simple peer-to-peer applications such as dumping pictures from a camera to a PC or set-top-box. But it can be linked into a physical home network, and if it encourages more people to set one up, then so much the better…

“Ofcom does not seem to be falling over itself to get legislation framed for UWB, even though it has approved the technology in principle.* But while it is talking to parliamentarians, it would do well to discuss the establishment of some sort of best practice for networking homes - one that does not involve the promiscuous and anti-social use of scarce spectrum.”

“Home networks can maximize bandwidth capacity and avoid interference by segregating applications across the two frequency bands. With only three [non-overlapping] channels, the 2.4 GHz band is subject to high levels of congestion from legacy 802.11b/g products and interference from microwave ovens, cordless phones and Bluetooth devices. As such, the 2.4 GHz band is well-suited for applications less sensitive to bandwidth limitations and interference: Internet data traffic, streaming MP3s and wireless printing. The 5 GHz band with 24 channels, fewer legacy devices and virtually no interferers, is ideal for high-bandwidth, latency-sensitive applications that require uninterrupted throughput: HD video streaming, VoIP calls and multi-player online gaming.

“The Microsoft Windows Vista® operating system advocates use of dual-concurrent networks and the allocation of applications onto separate frequency bands based on throughput requirement, latency-sensitivity and interference in the network. In order for retail network routers to earn the Windows Vista Premium Certification logo, they must offer dual-concurrent operation…”

‘Our goal was to make the car cool again,’ said Sterling Pratz, Autonet Mobile’s co-founder and CEO. ‘People are very interested in letting their kids be online and do cool things in the car.’

The company’s initial offering is a US$399 box that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter or a standard wall plug. For a $49 monthly fee, Autonet promises unlimited Internet access on the go. The box uses cellular data networks to connect to the Internet and behaves like any other Wi-Fi hotspot. That means multiple users can get online simultaneously using a single box as an access point.

“The mobile router’s ability to plug into standard wall outlets also means it can go nearly anywhere, from rental cars to hotel rooms and even business meetings. ‘You’re not tied to a coffee shop anymore,’ said Mr. Pratz.

“Autonet is currently taking pre-orders for units it said will start shipping this spring. Mr. Pratz said the company is also exploring a round of funding to help them meet demand, which he said has been strong. The company has survived thus far on internal investors, angels, and capital from Ecosystem Ventures.

Partnerships can be a vital to the success of any business venture, and Autonet appears to have inked a deal that could quickly give the young startup significant reach. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Autonet will announce a partnership with Avis Rent A Car that will bring its mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to Avis customers by March. During a conversation on Tuesday, Autonet officials didn’t deny the existence of a deal but declined to comment.

“Mr. Pratz said Autonet has also signed a deal with a family of dealerships in Northern California that will offer its product alongside Toyota, Volvo, Land Rover, and Maserati vehicles.

“A former race car driver, Mr. Pratz has experience dealing with major auto manufacturers and said Autonet is interested in working with well-known companies. ‘We’re an interesting marriage between the automotive industry and the technology provider industry,’ he said.

“Analysts see the technology’s potential but remain skeptical. ‘It’s clearly a first step,’ said Roger Lanctot of Telematics Research Group, a firm following the automotive and mobile electronics industries. Mr. Lanctot likened Autonet’s initial offering to a bridge leading to more affordable technologies, saying that improvements to the product will be critical for mainstream acceptance. ‘They’re going to have to get smaller and cheaper,’ he said.

“Here’s to hoping in-car Internet access will be less distracting to other drivers than seatback and fold-down in-car movie screens.”

The alleged post by Lin, using his online name ‘krisurf’, made in the wake of the London subway and bus bombings earlier that month, so alarmed the site’s users that some contacted the police.

The Straits Times understands that initial investigations had led the police to raid another user’s home. She was questioned and her computer seized, but an analysis of her computer revealed that she was not responsible for the bomb hoax.

As she had an unsecured wireless network at home, it was believed someone else could have made the offending post, using her network.

If convicted, Lin faces up to seven years’ jail and fines of up to $50,000 under the Telecommunications Act.

The tall, lanky national serviceman faces an additional 60 charges for using his notebook computer to illegally access the wireless networks of nine people in his neighbourhood repeatedly - an offence under the Computer Misuse Act with penalties of up to $10,000 in fines and three years’ jail per charge.

After the charges were read out to him, a sombre-looking Lin told the court he intended to plead guilty but needed a one-week adjournment as his grandmother had died recently.

The judge granted Lin’s request. Due to the serious nature of Lin’s alleged offences, bail was set at $20,000 and his passport confiscated.

Last November, a 17-year-old was charged with illegally accessing a wireless network, a practice known as Wi-Fi ‘mooching’.

He has since pleaded guilty and is expected to be sentenced in two weeks.

A check online revealed at least four cases worldwide where Wi-Fi moochers had been fined or jailed.

Here is the Earthlink San Franscisco Proposal for a Municipal Wireless Cloud for the City.

I thought it might be interesting to give an overview of the companies, projects and the applications in the Mobile Social Software (MoSoSo) area now that hybrid phones will hit the international markets soon.

© Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.

Currently most MoSoSo business models are based on SMS premium revenue income, others focus on different models such as premium subscription fees and local advertising, using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology. Personally, I think that MoSoSos, using Wi-Fi technology, will emerge and widespread more rapidly among youth in urban network zones, the moment they can afford the cool new hybrid phones.

Most fun seems to come from the ones using Bluetooth technology like Nokia Sensor and the French Mobiluck. Another interesting project I found was Pantonic, which has been developed by Ian Curry from the NYC Interactive Telecommunications Program. These applications using Bluetooth are based on the principle that you receive a message or alert when someone with same tastes is near you. The disadvantage is that the Bluetooth short-range radius to sense proximity only works over a distance of about 30 feet or 10 meters. Fun for shy people!

Uk-based Playtxt and MamJam are targetting bars and clubs audiences using premium sms.

Some companies like phling and Alatto are trying to claim their technology and are patent pending - I always have to wonder what people are trying to patent? People socialising? Connecting people? Tribes from Alatto uses its own unique mobile browser to connect people.

Meanwhile in the US, some promising projects are just coming out of the Universities.

TXTmob was first developed by the Institute for Applied Autonomy for protestors at the Democratic National Convention in Boston and the Republican National Convention in New York. Tad Hirsch, a researcher in MIT’s Smart Cities Group continues to offer TXTmob as a free service to the general public, and is currently coordinating a major software upgrade.

PlaceSite grew out of a final Masters project undertaken at SIMS, University of California, Berkeley.

Cellphedia, another thesis project coming out the NYC Interactive Telecommunications Program was created by Limor Garcia. Based on ideas taken from Wikipedia and dodgeball, Cellphedia allows its members to broadcast questions to its community and receive answers, using SMS text messaging on cell phones. It’s a cell phone application that promotes the sharing of knowledge.

Wavemarket, with solid partners and financing behind, is focusing on developing real business applications using GPS technology to deliver comprehensive LBS solutions. “From tracking the location of a fleet of vehicles, to alerting parents of a child’s whereabouts or creating a social network that lets friends share location-tagged information right from their mobile devices.”

Dodgeball, bought by Google - and the first out of many MoSoSo projects coming from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program - is based on using text messages, but knowing about Google WiFi plans, it shouldn’t take long before they merged the two services available for the new generation of hybrid phones…

Other hyped projects using Wi-Fi are Jambo and Meetro. Meetro marries instant-messaging software with geo-proximity technology in the hopes of expanding people’s social circles.

Through Alex Kummerman’s blog I got into MOSOMUSO - stands for MObile SOcial MUsical SOftware, when you link MoSoSo with music sharing.

This accronym was invended by the great researcher Atau Tanaka at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. Atau has since 2003 been working on Social Models for Ad-hoc Networks as well as on what he calls future music. I mentioned his research previously here.

Back to MoSoSo in Europe, Wanted Smiling, from the French Clicmobile, is about moving social networks from the desktop to the mobile phone - also patent pending! Their project called “AREYOUHERE?” is being launched in November 2005 in both France and Switzerland.

My personal favorite among the players described above is Plazes from Felix Petersen and Stefan Kellner.

Plazes is an easy to use web service that lets you articulate some basic info about internet access points — wired and wireless, public and private — in your area. Stefan and Felix were smart opening their API quickly integrating with new services such as Flickr, Skype, Jabber, TypePad, Yahoo, Google, Match.com, and Outlook.

To me it is clear that location-aware interaction companies will get great new opportunities with the introduction of the hybrid phones and the ongoing convergence of networks. How about you?

Tags: mososo LBS mobile social software proximity mosomuso mobsharing mobile music wifi bluetooth sensoring hybrid phones convergence

An Optical Wireless Solution by Clearmesh for San Dieago

“Westfield UTC, an outdoor mall east of La Jolla Village, San Diego, has 155
shops and 25 eateries, plus an ice-skating rink.
In 2005, Westfield commissioned Wireless Facilities, Inc. (WFI) to design an
ambitious, state-of-the-art expansion of the mall’s information infrastructure
to include Wi-Fi hotspot services available to its retail tenants, fast
and reliable capacity for mission-critical sales-transaction traffic, as well as
high-resolution security video surveillance covering the entire mall. “