8 January 2007

To: Interested parties
From: Bill Talanian
Subject: Wireless Internet, An analysis

The downtown site at La Vigia Hill is receiving interest by a company that is proposing to install a Wireless Internet at this location. The location has been surveyed by a consulting and engineering firm. The Wireless Internet is competitive to what is provided by Cox Cable and present DSL systems. The present configuration of their system will consist of 22 selected locations in Santa Barbara with the back-haul going to the cellular site near the county dump behind the Sheriff's Station.

The company proposing this system is called Clearwire. The founder is Craig McCaw (Wendy's ex) who originally was successful with creating Cellular One. Cellular One was the original cellular company at La Vigia Hill. It is now called Cingular after McCaw sold his interest to AT&T.

Clearwire proposes to use the present Cingular Tower for their antennas. Their equipment as I understand it is one footprint and 3 ft in height.

The Club's effort in recent months has expanded our use of the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band for point-to-point linking and access to the Internet on the local DSL line. SBARC presently operates in the 2.4 GHz band to/from Diablo and QTH of N6TVE. Our future plan is to route the Diablo WebCam stream to UCSB. In addition, several other experimental proposals are on tap to use this spectrum for yet to be specified ARES use. 

Clearwire wireless technology uses OFDM transmission protocol, featuring a design standard that includes secure wireless data transmission. Wi-Fi operates on unlicensed 2.4GHz frequencies, making it vulnerable to scanning and packet interception. Clearwire operates at licensed 2.5GHz frequencies.

Technically I'm not so sure if SBARC's use of the 2.4 GHz spectrum will be totally free of local interference once Clearwire cranks up on 2.5 GHz. We all know what happens when stations in the near field soak up the ether bandwidth. As usual our relationship with the telecom industry has always been excellent and cooperative. Typically the hilltop rationale is, last man in must ensure that mutual problems are not being generated. We hope not!

Our local experience at La Vigia with DSL Internet access tells us that bandwidth limitations are hampering our present operations. Contact was made with Cox Cable to see if they could run a cable line to our equipment shed. Cox responded with a cost proposal and discount structure for a 501 group such as SBARC. The installation cost was fair but not exactly cheap. SBARC is still exploring this option.

Of course one could always say that SBARC should install a Wireless Internet box and access the Internet via Clearwire. For sure there would be no excuse for not making it to their wireless system. Clearwire is still a proposal and it will be a year or more before anything happens due to permitting and local site agreements. The Cox Cable alternative is ready and available.

If you run Clearwire on your browser you will get an idea of Clearwire and their movement in this direction. Here is a CNN clip.

Bill Talanian



Clearwire founder Craig McCaw shakes up the telecom industry again.

By Erick Schonfeld and Jeanette Borzo, Business 2.0
September 21 2006: 10:47 AM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- The Disruptor: Clearwire

The Innovation: National Wi-Max broadband wireless service


Clearwire
Headquarters: Kirkland, Wash.
Co-CEOs: Craig McCaw, Benjamin Wolff
Founded: 2003
Employees: approx. 1,000
Key stat: 99,500 worldwide subscribers

CNN and Business 2.0 look at ways to improve technology in terms of engine and fuel efficiency. (September 20)
Play video

The Disrupted: Telecom and cable companies

It's almost a given these days that Clearwire, the Wi-Max wireless network founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, will shake up the wireless broadband sector. "If anyone is going to do it, it's going to be Clearwire," says Joe Laszlo, a senior broadband analyst at JupiterResearch in New York. "They've got the best technology, great financing, and a lock on nationwide spectrum." The only real question seems to be how deep into the telecom establishment the shock waves from McCaw's latest bit of disruption will penetrate.

Clearwire's initial goal is to create a nationwide broadband wireless network based on Wi-Max, a more powerful relative of Wi-Fi technology. Because Wi-Max infrastructure is much cheaper to build and maintain than traditional networks, some analysts think Clearwire will be able to seriously undercut the broadband prices of Comcast ( Charts), Verizon (Charts ), and their ilk. But the threat posed by McCaw's strategy could be much greater than just price pressure. Clearwire's approach could put in jeopardy the billions of dollars that telecoms and cable operators are pouring into upgrading their existing broadband networks. And in theory at least, Clearwire could eventually offer the cutting-edge services that telecoms and cable companies are angling for -- Web-based TV, movies on phones, VOIP calls, and the like. Clearwire is already offering VOIP phone service to 13 markets, and some expect the startup to partner with mobile-phone, IPTV, or satellite-TV companies to further expand its range of services. (Full disclosure: AOL, owned by the parent company of Business 2.0, is a reseller of Clearwire Wi-Max service.) "Filling a need that others aren't addressing has always been a focus of the McCaw companies," says McCaw's co-chief executive officer, Ben Wolff. "We are creating a brand-new category."

Certainly, the press-shy McCaw knows a thing or two about shaping disruptive networks. He began building the country's first national cellular network in the early 1980s, eventually selling it to AT&T for $11.5 billion. With Clearwire, McCaw has moved on to Wi-Max. Wi-Max has big technical advantages over other fast pipes, particularly Wi-Fi. Unlike Wi-Fi, it operates on a licensed spectrum, making the service far more reliable. The range of Wi-Fi signals is measured in hundreds of feet; Wi-Max's range is measured in miles.

Clearwire already offers basic Wi-Max broadband service in Brussels, Dublin, and 27 U.S. metropolitan markets covering more than 200 cities and towns. Its network had 100,000 subscribers at the end of March. (The company won't say how many new subscribers it has added since then or disclose financial details.) Clearwire also has made the installation process, often a painful hassle for Wi-Fi users, consumer-friendly with Wi-Max. A customer plugs a paperback-size modem into a power source and into a computer (via Ethernet) and the network is good to go. "It's a very simple process for a consumer to get up and running," says Jupiter's Laszlo.

Clearwire has challengers, notably Sprint (Charts ), which expects to spend as much as $3 billion in the next two years building a rival Wi-Max network and currently owns more spectrum than Clearwire. But Clearwire has powerful backers: In July, Intel ( Charts) and Motorola (Charts ) pumped $900 million into the company, a measure of their faith in McCaw's approach -- and of their hunger to sell chips and other gear that make Wi-Max work if it becomes a mainstream service. Perhaps most important, Clearwire has McCaw. "Disruptive," says Rich Begert, CEO of Wireless Services and a former McCaw executive, "is the best way to describe Craig."
 

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