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Wireless broadband coverage claims fall short
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 06:32:08 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Reply-To: <dewayne () warpspeed com> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 02:22:07 -0800 To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Wireless broadband coverage claims fall short Wireless broadband coverage claims fall short Feb 15, 2005 By: John C. Tanner <http://www.telecomasia.net/telecomasia/article/articleDetail.jsp? id=147034> February 15, 2005 Wireless broadband may be a potentially huge differentiator for 3G cellcos, but trials in Singapore reveal that the cost and performance of wireless broadband solutions don¹t always live up to the marketing hype from vendors. Patrick Scodeller, CTO of Singaporean cellco MobileOne, said wireless broadband has the potential to give the cellco a competitive edge over rivals SingTel and StarHub, which also have fixed-line broadband services. M1 has been evaluating three wireless broadband technologies none of which are WiMAX, which it intends to evaluate later in the year and so far has found Wi-Fi hotspot services too costly to deploy in terms of backhaul, installation and labor costs. Scodeller didn¹t name specific technologies or companies, but said that M1 has mainly been in the claim-verification stage for other wireless broadband technologies, and so far has found the claims to be at odds with actual performance, particularly in terms of coverage. ³Singapore is a small market, about 600 square kilometers. It takes about 1,200 base stations to provide full coverage for mobile. Well, we¹ve had vendors come in and say they can provide the same coverage with six or ten base stations, but as we trial them, the number seems to go up,² he said. ³Physics is physics. If you want to deliver a usable service that provides the kind of coverage our users expect which includes elevators and underground car parks the number of wireless broadband base stations it takes to do that has been creeping up closer to the number of base stations we need to provide 3G.² Scodeller added that M1 takes verification testing seriously in part because Singaporean users have high expectations for service coverage and quality, and partly because of its short-lived experience with CDMA. ³Qualcomm is a great company and have done very well, but we discovered when we deployed CDMA that the claims of their PR people about CDMA¹s capabilities were a bit, shall we say, iffy,² he said. Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net> [Note: Requires registration] Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com> ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- Wireless broadband coverage claims fall short David Farber (Feb 15)