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To: willcousa who wrote (53018)	5/15/2001 1:52:15 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

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 _______________________________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________________________ RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS The skinny on MMDS nwfusion.com MMDS, LMDS: A boon to local-loop competition nwfusion.com