Sounds good, willcousa
here's a funny angle on Sprint broadband wireless:
NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: JOANIE WEXLER on
WIRELESS IN THE ENTERPRISE
05/14/01 - Today's focus: Spring foliage wrecks havoc on home
network
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Today's focus: Spring foliage wrecks havoc on home network
By Joanie Wexler
Ah, springtime. The roses are in bloom, the trees are turning
green. But as welcoming as this sounds, the sprouting of
foliage can be a liability if you're using current-generation
broadband wireless technology.
I recently learned the hard way that we really need second-
generation, nonline-of-sight (NLOS) technology to be tested and
deployed fast. Otherwise, telecommuters and small offices
really can't consider Multichannel Multipoint Distribution
Service (MMDS) a viable network access alternative.
MMDS is offered commercially by major U.S. spectrum license-
holder Sprint Broadband Direct. The first-generation technology
on which the service is based requires a clear path from the
transceiver on top of your office or home to Sprint's nearest
base station, which can be up to 35 miles away. If you've been
following this newsletter for a while, you know that I am a
Sprint Broadband Direct user.
For many smaller sites, broadband access options are limited
(no DSL in my area, for example), and having the wireless
alternative can be a lifesaver. In my case, despite a 6-hour
installation in January and two 3-hour truck rolls to correct
installation issues, the service has been working reasonably
well, providing 2M bit/sec downloads and uploads of about 300K
bit/sec.
However, when the service simply quit working the other day and
no network problems were reported in the area, I was stunned to
ultimately find out what was causing my lack of connectivity.
In the sage words of the Sprint technician who came on site to
assess my situation: "The leaves grew."
In January, when my MMDS service was installed, the transceiver
on my roof had a direct view of the base station, because the
trees between here and there were fairly sparse. Now, however,
the trees are resplendent with foliage, which is blocking the
signal. About once every 12 to 24 hours, the wind will blow
just right, momentarily opening a path, and suddenly an e-mail
will download.
On the up side, Sprint has been very diligent, polite and
customer service-oriented. (Though not particularly realistic.
The technician's first advice was that I should ask the fellow
across the street if he would mind cutting off a third of the
tree in his front yard to clear some space. Given that my
neighbor is a landscaping perfectionist whose top priority is
his yard, I didn't fancy that solution). Then the technician
suggested that I add a second story to my home so that we could
boost the transceiver higher than the trees. (OK, that was in
jest.)
Ultimately, the tech called in his supervisor, and they
twiddled with the transceiver, aiming it through a small hole
in the foliage. For the moment, I'm getting a signal. But
Sprint is making no promises about how stable the service will
remain during the "green" season. According to the
technician, which is not an official Sprint statement, the
company will not begin testing second-generation, NLOS systems
until the middle of 2002. WorldCom, the other U.S. MMDS
license-holding heavyweight, is still at the stage of
conducting first-generation MMDS service trials in the East and
South.
Moral of the story? Don't install a line-of-sight MMDS service
in the fall or winter, otherwise, you may end up with
connectivity that only works half the year.
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To contact Joanie Wexler:
Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology
writer/editor in Campbell, Calif. She can be reached at
mailto:joanie@jwexler.com.
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RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS
The skinny on MMDS
nwfusion.com
MMDS, LMDS: A boon to local-loop competition
nwfusion.com |
