Re: Kitsap County

I look at this as how to harness forces of development and political and
social will to make things happen.  I was in EE program when the first home
brew PCs became available and Apple and Microsoft were starting out.  There
was a tremendous amount of spirit of 'revolution is in the air' about what
the then modest processors and software would enable.  Many looked at it as
heresy to cooperate with Big Blue and other heavy metal pushers.  But if the
goal is to create  a mass effort that feeds on itself, then the reasonable
thing to do is to help expand the envelope.  What happened with the PC
Revolution? IBM's and other IT companies involvement didn't steal it.  They
couldn't because the revolution was greater and broader than any company
could conspire to control.  Can any company stand in the way of the Wireless
Broadband Revolution?  No.

The reason is this is a basic technologically enabled development just as
the enabling microprocessor was destined to be put to use through
programming and distribution of resources and processing.  Intel has to move
on to WBB or will fall off their pedestal.  Ditto the model for the bulk of
the telecommunications industry ie. AT&T.

WBB Revolution is inevitable because IC design and process technologies are
on course to enable it and because the economic and social benefits are at
least as compelling as those of the PC and networking revolutions.  Real
productivity is delivered via broadband wireless.

Triple Play VoIP, Internet and VoD is the future but still not what drives
the market today.  WiMAX/802.16 is Wireless Metro Area Networking (WMAN).
It was designed to deliver IP including VoIP, VoD and, of course Internet
service wirelessly.  It cannot deliver HDTV bandwidth over 30 mile
distances.  It cannot deliver mobile broadband at as high of a data rate as
static installations.   But WiMAX can deliver 4-5 bit per Hz nomadic and 2-4
bits per Hz mobile spectral efficiency before being helped by MIMO-AAS.  And
it can scale from macro-cell to micro cell deployments.

But enough of that.  What makes sense for communities the size and nature of
Seattle is to build out FTTN - fiber to the node - terminated into Ethernet
and from that point whatever makes sense to deliver the mix of services the
customer wants.  Can WiMAX deliver triple play services to end users?
Installers of pre-WiMAX systems are doing that right now and reportedly
seeing rapid uptake.  Do hybrid fiber and WBB systems make sense?  Tokyo
Electric and others have had systems up and running for over three years.
WiMAX will be better than proprietary WBB systems and within a few years
much cheaper so the cost differential of a hybrid system will improve.

Different strokes for different folks.  Triple play does not define the
total market.  In fact, the bulk of the current market is for low bandwidth
cellular wireless totally unsuited for 'always on' delivery of broadband.
And cellular 3G will continue to have momentum and market size far in excess
of WiMAX for at least a few years.  WiFi is a phenomena that hits home with
users because it is free.. but flaky around the edges.  Both WiFi and WiMAX
ride on the same basic enablers: standardization of WBB and low cost GHz
mixed-mode VLSICs.   WiMAX covers more spectrum and connects more new
technologies more efficiently but it is also caught up in the same tidal
wave as WiFi.

--------

There is not much holding the Seattle Wireless group from forming a
non-profit, or heck, maybe even a for-profit corporation to build out a
nicely structured wireless network in the Seattle area.

- nothing except the reality that it is a spontaneous, ad-hoc development
and therefore won't happen.  Nice sentiment, lousy cohesive efforts.  Money
is the fluid of enterprise.  Poor slobs like myslef have to work for a
living and pervasive, deep service networks are not toys.



The earlier post about the triple-play: voice, video, and data would be
the key of course.  We could do what that guy in Canada did but scale it
up a bit.  The guy in Canada got a T-3 to his house and set up a
commercial satellite dish in his back yard.  He payed the satellite
video feed providers their fee and was legally allowed to resell the
content.  He put together a server with tons of disk space and recorded
everything that came off of the satellite onto the hard disks.  Then he
deployed  802.11g links to his neighbors and gave each one a mini-itx
box running Linux.  His neighbors/customers get video-on-demand using
the open source client-server MythTV dvr software, voice service using
the open source asterisk voip pbx, and data using the mini-itx as a
router.

The way I see it, the only thing that couldn't be done with the current
status of the group is the commercial satellite TV.  That would have to
be funded to get going.  The group form a non-profit, borrowed money,
and then dedicate profits to network expansion and marketting.  Using
open-source software and cheap, OTS hardware, there may be a way to
provide video/voice/data for a single low fee.

I believe that if we were serious and organized all of our knowledge, we
could design a network topology plan and a deployment plan that would
make sense.  Then it is just identifying the initial startup needs and
establishing marketting.  One incentive to get geeks in key areas to
pony up and help establish the intitial network would be to offer
rewards for nodes coming online in key areas.  The network topology plan
could identify key areas (i.e. Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, etc) and then
offered bounties based on how close the node maintainer was to the
"sweet spots" on the map.  I would even suggest that the reward be free
service via the equipment that the group hosts on their property.

The reason the swn hasn't taken off is because it is primarily a geek
tinkering enterprise.  Has anybody stopped to think, "what would we do
with the network if we achieved our build-out goals?"  Sure the website
for SnowNet says we'll use VOIP and whatnot, but you can do that with
normal DSL connection without the cost and hassle of buying wireless
gear, building/buying antennas, and working to keep the links up.  I
think the network would remain pretty much unutilized except for some
chatting or gaming maybe.

There has to be a service or product to fuel the deployment of the
network.  If swn wants to become a true community network, the community
will have to want it to exist.  That will only happen if it gives the
community something for free or cheaper than they buy it now.  The
video/voice/data at one low price seems like the way to go.

Dave
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