Qualcomm today announced that it has acquired 40 MHz (1452-1492 MHz) of L-Band radio spectrum recently auctioned by UK communications regulator Ofcom, at a cost of GPB 8,334,000 ($16.3 million).

The company will look at how peer-to-peer networking can be used in mobile networks, how capacity and in-building coverage can be improved, as well as broadcasting, according to Andrew Gilbert, executive vice president at Qualcomm Europe. The most likely scenario is that it will be used for a MediaFlo based mobile TV service, says EE Times.

BSkyB is already a major content provider to UK 3G phones and could adopt the system.

The L-Band spectrum license acquired by Qualcomm covers the entire United Kingdom and is technology neutral, thereby enabling Qualcomm to use the spectrum for innovative technologies, depending on its assessment of market needs in the United Kingdom.

DVB-H got a big boost earlier this year when the European Commission formally adopted DVB-H technology as the standard for mobile television throughout the EU’s 27 member states. European countries are required to encourage the use of DVB-H as the single listed standard; however it’s not a mandated standard. Therefore, competitors like Qualcomm are not precluded from entering the market.

DVB-H is the most widely supported format in Europe, with at least 16 trials across the continent. Commercial services are already under way in Italy, with launches planned for later this year in Finland, Austria France and Spain. The format is also backed strongly by Nokia, Philips, Ericsson and Sagem, as well as operators like Vodafone and O2.

Mobile TV has too many standards. U.S. broadcasters are trying to unite around one ATSC standard, while Echostar and ICO are going with DVB-Satellite to Handhelds (DVB-SH). Meanwhile broadband wireless systems have mobile television technology from Nextwave while cellular operators AT&T and Verizon have MediaFLO.

Cellular News, Gadgets, Mobile TV | No Comments »

Microsoft expects sales of its Windows Mobile platform products will account for 40% of the global smartphone market in fiscal 2012 (July 2011-June 2012), according to Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft ODM embedded devices, Asia, Daniel Shen and Steve Shen report for DigiTimes.

“Microsoft currently focuses its efforts on promoting the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system and the company has no plans to launch Windows Mobile 7 until 2009, Wu stated.”

About 20% of mid- to high-end handsets are expected to adopt the Linux OS by 2013, estimates ABI Research.

Nearly 84-percent of the US population had mobile phones by the end of 2007,” according to SNL Kagen, and that figure should shoot to 100-percent by 2013, with some 18 to 20-percent using multiple mobiles. In 59 countries, mobile penetration is greater than 100%.

Informa adds that 90 per cent of the world’s population are now covered by mobile networks and that half of the world’s 6.6 billion population now has a mobile subscription.

New government data indicates that one in six American homes, or nearly 16%, had only mobile phones in the second half of last year. Moreover, more than one out of every eight homes, or 13.1 %, received all (or nearly all) calls on cellphones even though there was a landline telephone at the residence.

Applications, Cellular News, EV-DO/HSDPA, Gadgets, Market Metrics | No Comments »

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project announced yesterday that Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system will be available on XO laptops in addition to the open source Linux operating system. The Windows-based XO systems will be deployed in upcoming pilot programs next month.

According to the press release, the plan is to have both Windows and Linux running on the machines, to let users decide what’s best. Microsoft worked with a variety of partners to develop customized drivers that enable Windows to run on the XO laptop. Windows now supports the laptop’s e-book reading mode, standard Wi-Fi networking, camera, writing pad and custom keys, as well as the power-saving and other features of the XO hardware.

“The people who buy the machines are not the children who use them, but government officials in most cases,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the nonprofit group. “And those people are much more comfortable with Windows.”

As Engadget put it;

“It’s been a controversial decision, but it looks like the OLPC XO has completed its transition from revolutionary education project to just another tiny Windows laptop with a useless keyboard — albeit one with a pleasantly whimsical design.”

Microsoft, through its Unlimited Potential, aims to transform education and foster a culture of innovation. By working with governments, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations and industry partners, Microsoft hopes to reach the next 1 billion people who are not yet realizing the benefits of technology — by 2015.

Meanwhile, Sugar Labs announced it will take the laptop’s innovative interface, known as Sugar, to the “next level of usability and utility”, according to the BBC.

Sugar is available under the open-source GNU General Public License (GPL) to anyone who wants to extend it. “Sugar Labs”, a (soon to be established) non-profit foundation will serve as a support base and gathering place for the community of educators and software developers who want to extend the platform and create Sugar-compatible applications.

It is intended that the free software will be made available on other PCs, such as the popular Asus Eee.

Applications, Gadgets, Innovations, Public Service, Wi-Fi News | No Comments »

MetroFi is trying to sell its citywide Wi-Fi networks in Portland (Oregon), Aurora and Naperville (Illinois) and Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Foster City and Concord (California), reports Muniwireless and WiFiNetNews. MetroFi founder, Chuck Haas, says he is also exploring the sale of MetroFi itself to a third party.

If no buyers emerge, Haas says MetroFi will shut down service.

The Portland network was MetroFi’s largest, nearly identical in size to Philadelphia’s 135 square miles, the largest consumer-oriented municipal wireless network in the nation. MetroFi said they’d spend some $10 million on Portland’s 134 square mile WiFi network which was supposed to serve some 500,000 people by August, 2008.

It’s clear that won’t happen.

The Portland Wi-Fi network is generally thought to be somewhere between 15-25% built-out — the lower figure representing area, the higher by population. Earthlink’s $20 million Philadelphia network was about 75% completed when they made the announcement this week that the system would be shut down in June (see DW: Earthlink to Philly: We’re Outta Here).

MetroFi chief executive Chuck Haas offered to sell the network to the city for $894,000, in a letter to Portland officials dated May 13. If a deal with the city or a private company can’t be reached by next month, the company will shut down Portland’s network, says Haas.

Here’s that letter:

May 13, 2008
Mr. Logan Kleier
City of Portland
1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 450
Portland, Oregon 97204

Logan,
I am writing today to request a call or meeting with you to discuss the City
of Portland network. MetroFi’s goal was to have the City of Portland network
producing enough revenue to cover expenses and even with the roll out of
Microsoft SideGuide, the best advertising platform we have for Wi-Fi revenue
generation, we are still not covering our costs for network operation and
maintenance. As I discussed on the phone, MetroFi has three options to
consider. The first is for the City to purchase the network from MetroFi;
the second is to sell the network to a 3rd party; the third is to shut the
network down.

The City of Portland network is comprised of 598 access points and is used
by approximately 16,000 residents and visitors per month. April had 306,000
hours of use. Our operating expenses include pole attachment fees and power,
the BAP locations, backhaul transport via microwave the Pittock Building and
Internet transit. These expenses are approximately $15,000 per month.

To purchase the network, we would propose a price of $1,500 per AP or
$894,000. MetroFi would train the City on the network operation and transfer
assets, spare equipment and knowledge to the City. MetroFi is also
discussing network purchase with other prospective buyers, but there is no
assurance that we can complete a sale.

The third option is to remove the equipment, beginning in June 2008.

I understand this is a lot to digest, which is why I have requested a
meeting or call to allow us to discuss these options in more detail. We are
looking to understand the city’s position as soon as possible as our intent
is to begin network shut-down and equipment removal the by the end of June
if we do not have a buyer.

Please let me know a convenient time to meet and discuss these options with
you at your first opportunity.

Sincerely,
Chuck Haas
President & CEO
chaas@metrofi.com

Logan Kleier, who oversees the network for the city, told DailyWireless today:

Obviously this news is disappointing but not unexpected. We have not had any buyback discussions with MetroFi. As MetroFi indicated in their letter to us, they seek to either sell the network in the short term or shut it down beginning in June.

Construction came to a screeching halt about 6 months ago in Portland. Metrofi wanted the city to provide cash in the form of an “anchor tenant” contract, before it proceeded (see DW MetroFi Vs Portland). The city refused. Under its contract with the City, MetroFi is required to complete its citywide buildout by August 2008. Portland was MetroFi’s only major city where an “anchor tenant” contract was not required. An “anchor tenant” provision has since become a requirement for Metrofi contracts.

No city money has been invested in Portland’s wireless network, although the city spent some $250,000 planning for the network and paying Logan Kleier, the city staffer responsible for overseeing Unwire Portland.

In Portland, as in other cities, Metrofi offered a $19.95/mo tier (without ads). But MetroFi’s free, ad-supported, WiFi tier set the company apart and was undoubtedly the most popular option.

The latest numbers released by Metrofi stated some 20,000 people a month were using the system. CEO Haas claims that 150,000 out of 540,000 people had access to the service.

According to the Portland Mercury, City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, whose responsibilities include oversight of the network, has said that MetroFi’s conduct has been “regrettable,” though he will allow the project “a quiet path to termination”—meaning there will be no action until August 2008, when the two sides will likely part ways.

The “free” service uses Microsoft’s Side Guide, which automatically places ads on the sides of your internet browser. Metrofi also offered businesses broadband connectivity using their own backhaul system which included Dragonwave gear.

Philadelphia’s Earthlink system charged $19.95/month for access but offered a discounted $9.95/month service to qualified low-income residents, run by Wireless Philadelphia, a non-profit group funded by subscription revenue and various charities.

EarthLink complained this week that it was losing up to $200,000 a month in Philadelphia for a system that was expected to draw more than 100,000 customers but had only 5,942 subscribers. EarthLink said 908 were digital-inclusion customers who pay about half the regular monthly $19.95 rate.

Halfway through 2007, EarthLink’s Municipal wireless business, which had been leading the charge with big contract wins to build and run networks in San Francisco, Houston, and Philadelphia, started unraveling. In September, 2007, Earthlink pulled out of proposed networks in San Francisco and Houston. And in early February 2008, EarthLink put its citywide Wi-Fi business up for sale (see DW Earthlink to Philly: We’re Outta Here).

Both MetroFi and EarthLink underestimated costs and overestimated revenue.

Chuck Haas and MetroFi have received a lot of wrath, some deserved, by competitors and users. But only MetroFi was willing to take the courageous leap of faith to offer “free” service.

Besides the free WiFi now available in many coffee shops, hotels and restaurants, Municipal WiFi operators are also facing new competition; especially from the Mobile WiMAX venture from Sprint, Clearwire, Cable and Google, which also provides voice.

DailyWireless has more than 650 related Municipal Wireless stories including; Earthlink to Philly: We’re Outta Here, MuniFi Roundup, Muni-Fi’s Got Trouble, Who the MuniFi MAN?, Municipal WiFi: What Would You Do?, Wireless Silicon Valley: Would You Believe a Dozen Hotspots in San Carlos?, Free Grass Roots Wi-Fi: It Works in Portland, Starbucks Adds AT&T Wi-Fi, Earthlink Gets Out, MetroFi Vs Portland, Meraki Proposes Free SF Wi-Fi Network, OpenAirBoston Regroups; Becomes Open, Sacramento WiFi on Slow Track, Sacramento Approves WiFi, SoCal Wireless: Toast?, MuniFi: What Now?, MuniFi: Not Dead Yet, Earthlink Restructures, MuniFi Holds Breath, San Francisco WiFi Dead?, Earthlink Tweeks WiFi Business, New York’s 750 sq mile Cloud, San Francisco WiFi Dead?, Wireless Houston: Size Queen?, State-wide Wireless Broadband Access, Ten Cities Under Colorado Cloud, FiberNet for Calif Schools, Washington’s 1500mi Cloud, Sprint WiMAXing NYC, Connecting the Nation, WiFi Vs WiMAX in Windy City, New York’s 750 sq mile Cloud, Will “N” Rescue MuniFi?, Aeris + PacifiCorp: CDMA Meter Reading, M2Z: Free Internet Now!, Sprint’s WiMAX Cities, San Francisco: Now it’s the Antennas!, WiFi War in San Francisco, Houston + Earthlink to Build Huge MuniFi Network, El Paso Unwired + Most of California, Green Light for Philly WiFi Expansion, City Clouds Turn On, Minneapolis Goes Local, Digital City Winners, Anaheim Turns On, New Orleans Gets Earthlink Cloud, Portland Chooses MetroFi for 134 Mile Cloud, Milwaukee’s $20M Cloud, Dvorak: Muni WiFi Will Die, The World Largest WiFi Cloud, Rain on SF Cloud, Google WiFi SitRep, San Mateo: 1st Silicon Valley Cloud, Sacramento Approves WiFi, Cloud for Silicon Valley, Wireless Silicon Valley Proposals, Park City: Solar WiFi, Solar Powered Solstice, GoogleFi: Ads or Not?, Google WiFi Interview, Portland Chooses MetroFi for 134 Mile Cloud, SF WiFi: Bad Deal for Poor?, SF Cloud: It’s Google/Earthlink, Minneapolis Bridge Collapse & Emergency Communications and Philly Chooses Earthlink.

Municipal Wireless, Wi-Fi Deployments | No Comments »

Sprint and Samsung today declared Mobile WiMax ready for commercial service. Sprint plans on launching commercial WiMax in Washington and Baltimore “later this year”.

Washington and Baltimore joined Chicago in a “soft rollout”, in which Sprint workers use and test the technology, a Sprint spokesman said last week. A Clearwire Mobile WiMax rollout is also planned, likely later this summer, in Portland, Oregon.

Despite today’s announcement about Washington and Baltimore, no commercial rollout projection for Chicago was mentioned. When asked about Chicago, a Sprint spokesman said “there will be further progress to report at another time.”

It’s a Motorola party in Chicago and Portland.

Sprint and Samsung said testing of overall performance, including successful wireless handoffs between cell towers without delay, had met Sprint’s “rigorous commercial acceptance criteria.” Testing was conducted in laboratories, as well as in the Baltimore-Washington area, the companies said.

Samsung has been working with Sprint since June 2007. There were lab tests, followed by field tests in October and then interoperability tests with “multiple” other device vendors in April.

Those devices included a Nokia’s WiMax tablet, a Samsung WiMax express card for laptops and a Zyxel WiMax modem. Intel has been developing chip sets for use in laptops and ultramobile PCs.

Clearwire is planning to move onto Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Grand Rapids, Mich., with mobile WiMax deployments after it launches in Portland, Ore., in the second half of this year, the company said during its first quarter earnings call this week. Clearwire ended the first quarter of 2008 with 443,000 users, up 72 percent on the previous year’s first quarter.

Maravedis forecasts WiMAX subscribers to exceed 100 million by 2014.

Meanwhile, there are more than 45 million cellular-based HSPA users worldwide, delivering consistent data rates in the range of 500 kbit/s to 1.5 Mbit/s, reports Unstrung. The GSM family will account for fully 89% of the global market in 2011, according to Gartner Inc. In the U.S., AT&T is a GSM provider, along with T-Mobile, which many believe will eventually announce intentions to support LTE and has launched AWS service in New York City.

Alltel has committed to LTE but any significant network upgrades are still three to five years out, the company said today. The No. 5 carrier has just over 13 million customers. Alltel is the second major CDMA carrier (after Verizon Wireless) to switch tracks and select LTE. Sprint, of course, is going the Mobile WiMAX route (and may get a 3-5 year lead over the competition).

Late to the party, AT&T and Verizon had to pay a premium for their spectrum, will wait years for LTE infrastructure, and could be left with scraps for their microwave backhaul.

“It’s what I call the elephant in the room that nobody talks about,” explained Clearwire CTO John Saw, to Unstrung. “The backhaul is probably the highest cost of deploying the network… Anyone who wants to roll out a real wireless broadband network nationwide needs a cheaper solution.”

Dan Jones of Unstrung has compiled Ten Reasons to Love Sprint.

WiMAX Deployments, WiMAX News | No Comments »

Portland’s Personal Telco has always had an active list serve discussion. Things are heating up with this week’s announcement by Earthlink to shut down Philadelphia’s Wi-Fi network, the largest in the nation.

Today, it’s the battle of the Tylers (Tyler Booth, President of Stephouse Networks vrs Tyler van Houwelingen, CEO of Azulstar)

Tyler Booth posts:

–
> I think wifi is too expensive - at more than $100K a mile - to provide
> suburban service. That’s why I’m partial to WiMAX for the outskirts.
> Free with ads, $9.95 for up to 1 Mbps.
–

WiMAX is NOT the magic bullet. It costs millions to deploy, you need to own spectrum, and at the end of the day, it’s coverage isn’t any better than wifi minus some given level of interference.

WiFi can be deployed for much less than 100k per sq mile if you’re not providing
mobile access. On top of that, the Clearwire/Sprint/Comcast conglomerate will never provide free access (ad driven or not) and currently charge WAY more than $10 for 1Mb.

Tyler Booth // President
ph. 503.548.2000 | fx. 503.548.2002
921 SW Washington St, Suite 224
Portland OR 97205

========
To which Tyler van Houwelingen replies:

This is an interesting discussion, so I thought I would add my opinions….

My firm has extensively deployed both muni WiFi and now WiMax @ 3.65GHz (to replace the muni WiFi networks). IMHO, WiMax is very much the real deal, and you can believe the hype. Using just 2 WiMax APs we get the same coverage that currently takes about 125 WiFi APs and with much (3X) higher client speeds, lower maintenance, better QoS, and up to 20X the number of users per AP, etc. Also, you dont have to deal with the municipality, rights of way, bank switched power, interference, rouge APs, security issues, etc.

I believe that Muni WiFi is pretty much dead. I am not saying it cant work, I am just saying that economically it is not viable right now. $100k per sq mile is being optimistic, the best networks (like the Tropos network in Miami beach) have 50 APs per square mile to get blanket laptop coverage. That translates to about $160k/sq mile, plus very high OPEX for electricity, maintenance, etc. With WiMax, you can do mobile laptop coverage at 1-2 or fewer per square mile depending on the band. WiMax only costs us about 5X more per AP versus WiFi (e.g. tropos), so you do the math on the per sq mile, but the difference is an order of magnitude.

I believe that Muni WiFi is a 5G architecture (picocell) that was attempted many years to early and with the wrong wireless technology. This is not to say that good ideas like PTP and Meraki wont be successfull, they will be. But mobile WiMax is a very important and powerful technology for operators and I hope to see this deployed worldwide as soon as possible. A WiMax iPhone that works everywhere will be truly awesome. Yes WiMax is not free or under $10/month, but it can be a very good deal. You can see our wimax pricing on our website, the lowest prices we offer are $29/mo with no contract for 2Mbps and $49 for 6M. Not as good as free, but certainly not bad.

Tyler van Houwelingen
Founder & CEO
Azulstar, Inc.
1051 Jackson, Grand Haven, MI 49417
Main: 1-877-AZULSTAR
Fax: 616-842-1104
www.azulstar.com

DailyWireless asked Tyler van Houwelingen the Founder & CEO of Azulstar his impressions of the 3.65 GHz gear. Here’s his response:

Azulstar: We have tested Airspan, Redline and now Alvarion gear at 3.65ghz. The redline works great and is not too expensive, but only does fixed wimax 16d for now. The alvarion, I believe, is more expensive but 16e mobile wimax software upgradable and provides great coverage using techniques such as smart antennas and uplink subchannelization. Redline has these features coming in their next model.

DailyWireless: Do you think the majority of municipal wireless operators could
benefit from 3.65?

Azulstar: Yes, however, there are a lot of exclusion zones. We backed out of Sacramento, Winston Salem and Silicon Valley projects because they are all locted in exclusion zones for 3.65GHz. (Just a bad coincidence for us as these were our biggest 3 muni projects going forward)

DailyWireless: Do you think it will become a residential solution?

Azulstar: Yes, but the price of the CPE must come down - it is currently about $450. At under $150 or so, this can go widespread for residential. Centrino WiMax is the best as it is “Free”. Given current CPE prices, we have mostly high end residential and biz right now.

DailyWireless: Where do you think 3.65 (and munifi) is headed?

Azulstar: I think that MuniWiFi will move to be all publicly owned, like Miami Beach or Oklahoma City. These are very useful network for cities to own and use for their agencies - transprotation, meter reading and public safety, etc. It is easier and cheaper to put a full screen traffic or police camera on unlicensed spectrum such as 802.11a or even 4.9GHz than it is on WiMax, which uses very expensive spectrum that needs to be “doled” out.

In other news, Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google, said municipal broadband networks could help boost the availability of high-speed Internet access and even help to ensure Net neutrality in the U.S.. He spoke at a lunch in Seattle, which is investigating the possibility of building its own broadband network. Seattle would follow its southern neighbor Tacoma, which has been operating its own fiber network for several years. Tacoma spent some $100 million for the Click! Network, a municipal SONET fiber network.

Provo Utah’s citywide fiber-optic system will be sold to Broadweave Networks, a local fiber-optic services provider this month. iProvo, the largest municipally owned fiber-to-the-premises network in the U.S., reaching all 36,000 residences and businesses within the city, will be sold for $40.6 million, enough to retire outstanding bonds incurred by Provo to build the system.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wants deploying high-speed broadband technology throughout the state to remain a central focus. He praised the power of GIS technology — citing examples from the 2007 Southern California wildfires — and lauded the state agencies that had automated processes and made transactions available online.

Commentary, Grass Roots Wireless, Municipal Wireless, Radio Policy News, Society & Telecom, Wi-Fi Deployments, WiMAX Deployments, WiMAX News | No Comments »

The Washington Post has announced a video interview series about technology creators and business innovators.

The Personal Technology video interview series launches with Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales discussing how this Internet age will be remembered, Oxford University Professor, Jonathan Zittrain on whether Google poses a threat to free culture, and venture capitalist Esther Dyson on maintaining privacy on Facebook.

This eight-month series, sponsored by Intel, will feature interviews with high profile guests discussing the significant impacts that personal technology has made on their lives and careers.

The Washington Post already syndicates Tech Cruch features (like this attempt at buzz), although their arrangement has caught flack from Wired.

Still, it’s hard to beat Charlie Rose.

Newspapers & Magazines | No Comments »

Greg Goldman still sees a future for Wireless Philadelphia, the nonprofit firm set up three years ago to help city residents gain access to Internet service.

Just don’t ask him what it might be, says the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Wireless Philadelphia chief executive called reporters to a North Philadelphia street corner yesterday to declare the nonprofit “alive and kicking” even though EarthLink asked a federal judge on Tuesday to let it dismantle the network it built to provide the Internet service for the program.

Goldman, after reading a statement and urging a group of about 20 young people to pose for pictures holding up laptop computers, tried to slip away without answering questions. Reporters blocked his escape.

“We’re still working to identify a partner or partners that will be able to step in behind EarthLink,” Goldman said. Mayor Nutter this week said he has no plans to use city money to save the wireless network. The city says it would cost taxpayers at least $3.6 million a year to operate the network.

Goldman repeatedly said he could not talk about the specifics of failed negotiations to have OneCommunity, a Cleveland-based nonprofit firm, assume control of the wireless network from EarthLink. If EarthLink is allowed to dismantle the network, Wireless Philadelphia could still pursue “digital inclusion” efforts to help city residents with limited incomes gain Internet service.

EarthLink offered to give the network away for free, and offered an additional $2 million in equipment, and still couldn’t find any takers, said Goldman. EarthLink is seeking permission in federal court to take down its $17 million in hardware. The company requires court approval because of the nature of the partnership among EarthLink, Wireless Philadelphia and the city.

Earthlink wants to remove their Wifi nodes next month.

“We assert that EarthLink does not have the ability under this arrangement to unilaterally do anything like that,” said Goldman.

EarthLink complained this week that it was losing up to $200,000 a month in Philadelphia for a system that was expected to draw more than 100,000 customers but had only 5,942 subscribers. EarthLink said 908 were digital-inclusion customers who pay about half the regular monthly $19.95 rate.

EarthLink - not city taxpayers - put up the multimillion-dollar investment to build the system, notes the Philadelphia Inquirer. Former Mayor John F. Street, a technology guru, negotiated the high-profile deal in an effort to blanket the city with WiFi — the nation’s largest municipal wireless system.

The network, about 75% complete, covers most of Philadelphia, the 5th largest U.S. city, with one million residents. Earthlink hoped to sell its muni Wi-Fi business after writing down a $20.7 million charge on discontinued municipal Wi-Fi operations. Now they’re having a hard time giving it away.

The vision was there, the business wasn’t.

Wired Magazine has mapped hundreds of municipal wireless projects on Google Maps. Most are smaller cities and counties, where bureaucracies are less onerous and costs are lower. Here’s a pdf version (224k).

Here’s a recap of Municipal Wireless Project in the United States:

• Portland, Oregon: MetroFi, says it needs an infusion of cash to complete the 134 sq mile system (video), and now wants the city to become an anchor tenant. The city so far has said no, insisting that MetroFi has a contractual obligation to try to complete the network, now used by about 15,000 users per month. Portland spent more than $250,000 planning for the network and paying Logan Kleier, the city staffer responsible for overseeing the project.
• EzWireless designed and built a mobile, secure, broadband and web-based network covering 700 square miles in Eastern Oregon five years ago. It enabled local fire & police departments in seven cities, parts of three counties and two states. It’s the largest WiFi system in the United States — and the first. That system works.
• OpenAirBoston Regroups; Becomes Open. City leaders insisted they aren’t backing away from their ultimate goal of Wi-Fi in every corner of Boston. Instead, they said, they’re abandoning their original timetable to refocus on a series of neighborhood “bubbles” that test technology and business models.
• Corpus Christi, which sold their system to EarthLink is now getting it back. EarthLink is shutting down public WiFi access for the City of Corpus Christi on May 16, 2008. The City Council opted to take back control and return the network to its original purpose–smart meter reading and other municipal services. EarthLink will not be forced to pay a promised $1.59 million, but the city will get roughly $3 million in equipment and upgrades.
• Tempe, Ariz.: Passed through at least three owners in less than three years. The current owner, Globility, came to an impasse with its suppliers, and unplugged the network’s authentication servers. The city declared Globility in default of the contract and may declare the network abandoned.

• Kite Networks, ran the Tempe and Chandler, Arizona, systems, which have since shut down. MobilePro sold their Kite Networks division (NeoReach), to Gobility last year. Gobility has been trying to sell to a California firm.
• San Francisco’s WiFi Network never got off the ground. A Meraki network is developing in San Francisco, from its origin as a 1-square-mile testbed and is based on MIT’s RoofNet. Currently, the network covers about 2 square miles, and offers 1Mbps wireless connections, says Sanjit Biswas, Meraki’s CEO and co-founder. Meraki is funding the San Francisco deployment, as a showcase of what the technology can do. SFLan aims to build a wireless network with LAN characteristics on a metropolitan scale and are proposing a city-wide network that addresses low income users, in lieu of the pullout by Earthlink
• Dallas and Chicago are deploying wireless video surveillance networks in specific areas. ABI predicts this global market alone will grow from $16 billion today to $45 billion eight years from now.
• Wireless Minneapolis: About 85% of the city is covered with an 4.9GHz public safety band deployed. It is being used now by some inspectors and public works employees, and was widely praised during the Minneapolis bridge collapse last year. USI Wireless, found not all poles can sustain the weight and that electricity was only turned on by photoelectric cells at dusk, raising cost. Minneapolis (pop: 385,000), has signed up about 8,000 users, from roughly 175,000 households. A number of free-access sites and zones have been installed around the city and a portion of the profits go to a digital inclusion fund.
• St. Louis. AT&T’s wireless Internet network is up and running in one square mile of downtown St. Louis. Don’t expect to see a citywide system any time soon, though. More than a year ago, the company proposed a wireless network among the city’s 62 square miles, but AT&T and the city couldn’t find a cost-effective way to power the WiFi nodes. The citywide plan was nixed in October.
  
• In Grand Rapids, Clearwire is building a WiMAX network that covers all 45 square miles of the city with the city trading access to infrastructure in exchange for reduced rates for government and low income access. Clearwire only requires 10 to 15 towers to cover 100 square miles, versus some 40 WiFi access points per square mile at $100K per square mile for WiFi. Do the math.
• Long Island’s wireless Internet project a $150-million Wi-Fi system to cover 750 of the Island’s 1,200 square miles without a dollar of taxpayer funds, is months past its initial target date and its future looks doubtful, says Newday.
• Azulstar a municipal operator in in Albuquerque and elsewhere, is now switching to the quasi-licensed 3.65 Ghz band for longer range with less interference. They’re using equipment from Airspan and Redline.
• Wireless Silicon Valley. The grandeous Wireless Silicon Valley vision of two years ago, reaching some 2.4 million people, was first scaled back to several test phases. Then, Azulstar, the startup that was to build and operate the network, couldn’t get funding even for two test networks, at about $500,000 each.

Sascha Meinrath, research director, Wireless Future Program, at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C. public policy group, argues that 2007 showed the failure of the free market approach to critical infrastructure. Government has a traditional role, he writes, as the builders and maintainers of critical infrastructure.

Personal Telco Project (PTP) in Portland, is building a network from the ground up, using volunteers, Linksys or similar Wi-Fi routers reflashed with the WiFiDog software, and shared DSL or fiber broadband connections. They unwired the Mississippi neighborhood in north Portland.

Like Meinrath, PTP prez Michael Weinberg sees a synergy between community efforts and municipal policy goals. “What I’d like to see Portland do is get on the viral side of this,” he says. “There are hundreds of thousands of broadband connections [in the city]. We could unwire Portland tomorrow if enough people got on board.”

Here’s an interesting fact; DailyWireless is posting this story using Portland MetroFi’s FREE WiFi service. It’s been our sole source of internet connectivity for 6 months.

Grass Roots Wireless, Municipal Wireless, Public Service, Society & Telecom, WiMAX Deployments | No Comments »

CBS has agreed to acquire CNET Networks in a deal valued at $1.8 billion, the companies said Thursday. Based in San Francisco, CNET Networks-owned sites include CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, CNET News.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon, and TechRepublic.

The deal was approved unanimously by the CNET board and is expected to close in Q3. The purchase price comes to $11.50 per share, representing a 44 percent premium over Wednesday’s closing price of $7.95.

The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and about 200 million users worldwide, the companies said.

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The FCC has taken a first step toward re-auctioning the 700MHz “D block” in the 700 MHz band.

The FCC voted to ask for public comments (pdf) on how to re-auction the 10MHz piece of spectrum. Commissioners wanted to pair it with another 10MHz controlled by public-safety agencies to build a nationwide network shared by public-safety agencies and commercial users. But the public service band failed to receive the minimum US$1.3 billion bid it wanted.

The $1.3 billion reserve price and stringent build-out requirements are blamed for its lack of success at the 700 MHz auction earlier this year.

Now the agency is asking whether it is still appropriate to keep the public/private partnership, in which the spectrum winner would have worked with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), a coalition of 15 public-safety groups that controls the second 10MHz block that would have been paired with the D block.

The FCC is seeking comment on issues like:

• The rules governing public-safety priority access to the network during emergencies
• The performance requirements and license term
• Whether to license the D Block and public-safety broadband spectrum on a nationwide or regional basis
• And auction-related issues such as whether to restrict auction participation and how to determine a reserve price.

Some advocacy groups criticized the PSST and advisor Cyren Call for suggesting they want an annual $50 million lease payment from the D block’s winner in exchange for use of their 10MHz. The FCC also asked whether for-profit organizations should be involved with the PSST.

Shortly after the agency’s 5-0 vote on the D Block, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to authorize $4 million to begin funding the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corp. To date, the PSST has been funded by loans arranged by its advisor — Cyren Call — and financed through the firm’s venture capital investors.

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