xenophon
join:2007-09-17
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Can't call it a success yet
Since it won't go fully live until March, it's too early to call it a success. WiFi in not intended to work beyond 300' and is not the right solution for city-wide service. It says it won't work for buildings over 3 floors. I have major doubts performance will be good indoors for most people.
I can see over 30 hotspots in my condo building. Sometimes I accidentally connect to one and I'm lucky if I can get 1Mbps. And that's only a couple out of 30, so probably only when very close to me.
EVDO and WiMAX are much better solutions for city-wide access. It's designed for it.
Cities may as well fund WiMAX providers, or at least offer telephone poles. |
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eggboard
Premium
join:2000-11-18
Seattle, WA
| said by xenophon  :Since it won't go fully live until March, it's too early to call it a success. WiFi in not intended to work beyond 300' and is not the right solution for city-wide service. ... EVDO and WiMAX are much better solutions for city-wide access. It's designed for it. Cities may as well fund WiMAX providers, or at least offer telephone poles. Good points, but the "300 foot" concept was absolutely just an estimate, and is really a diameter measure. You can push Wi-Fi using high-gain omni outdoor 1,000 feet or more without obstructions.
EVDO isn't a better solution: too limited by spectrum (despite Wi-Fi's obvious spectrum limits, too). WiMax makes more sense, but both EVDO and WiMax are controlled by those that own the frequencies. That's what made Wi-Fi appealing. |
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xenophon
join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
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quote:
Good points, but the "300 foot" concept was absolutely just an estimate, and is really a diameter measure. You can push Wi-Fi using high-gain omni outdoor 1,000 feet or more without obstructions.
However the end user device would also need to be more powerful, wouldn't it?
quote:
EVDO isn't a better solution: too limited by spectrum (despite Wi-Fi's obvious spectrum limits, too). WiMax makes more sense, but both EVDO and WiMax are controlled by those that own the frequencies. That's what made Wi-Fi appealing.
Doesn't really matter in the end. This city service is still a paid service, not a free one. EVDO works in most any city and performs well indoors, and still offers 1xRTT in small/rural areas when traveling, which is still better than dialup. |
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nobody7
join:2001-01-30
Mayer, MN | reply to eggboard
WiMax can also work in the 5.8 band which is unlicenced. Unfortunately when working in that band it will run into the same limitations as WiFi since it is an unlicenced band |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| reply to xenophon
said by xenophon :However the end user device would also need to be more powerful, wouldn't it? Yep. Thats why something called "wireless bridges" are sold. Basically either a high tx power and possibly high receiver sensitivity USB wifi adapter with 5 inch omni, or a router style box ment to be placed close to a window/outside wall again with big omni and high tx power. The router approach backhauls through wired ethernet to a customer's router or computer, or it creates a private wifi network for the customer inside their home whose internet comes through the public wifi network. |
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CMoore2004
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI
| reply to xenophon
I don't think so. The high-gain antenna should have the same Rx gain as the Tx gain.
EVDO's a fine solution, but won't offer the same bandwidth that WiFi is capable of offering. In a city like Minneapolis, I'm sure the towers don't cover a very large area, so they can obviously reuse parts of the spectrum. With any luck, I'll never be in Minneapolis again, but if I am I'll see how my Sprint Mobile Broadband performs. |
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