cwu46
join:2002-04-11
Chicago, IL
| reply to zentec
Re: It'll be interesting...
Hi Zentec,
Having operated/deployed/built systems in both licensed and license-exempt bands, I can attest to the fact that license-exempt technology has it's own set of unique challenges. But licensed bands are not exactly a "holy grail" - and writing off license-exempt technologies would be a serious mistake.
In 2002 alone, amidst the "telecom meltdown" - In-Stadt MDR estimated that in North America alone, there were over 1500 independent WISPs w/ aggregate annual access revenues in excess of $250 million. Guess what, over 90% of them were using license-exempt technologies (while the remaining 10% using licensed technologies were going bankrupt)
License-exempt "waste" spectrum today is utilized in wireless broadband networks that provide not just last-mile connectivity, but last 30-50 mile connectivity. WISPs today number in the thousands, as the proprietary BWA PtMP hardware infrastructure for North America in 2004 has exceeded $100 million (which doesn't even count the WISPs that use Wi-Fi), and aggregate North American annual BWA access revenues (again, mostly served by license-exempt technology) have been projected by Jupiter Research to exceed $1 billion in 2005.
As for venture groups and WISPs, I at one time operated a license-exempt WISP in the third largest city in the US (I sold it last year to such a group). It is still running, and growing.
One of my current customers is a major national CLEC, who is looking back into wireless as it has seen Towerstream (another venture funded license-exempt WISP) and several
other WISPs destroy its T1 sales in Boston
If you want to learn more about how license-exempt technology is flourishing, I suggest that you check out WISPA (»www.wispa.org) and perhaps look into the upcoming WISPNOG (»www.wispnog.com) symposium.
-Charles |
