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Technology Stocks : 4G - Wireless Beyond Third Generation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dexter Lives On who wrote (96)	12/31/2001 2:54:32 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 1002

Rob, thanks for posting that find. Most of the points made by Negroponte are right on, imo, but some of the author's interpretations and representations of what Nick was saying are unusual and miss the mark, if you ask me. For example: "Traditionally, telecom networks are called switched networks and this limits their use in the internet world as they are not flexible enough to andle the always on connectivity needed for the internet." What does always on have to do with being IP enabled? The ILECs offer "always on" in their DSL offerings, which are based on ATM at Layer 2, despite the option of IP being carried over it in a prevalent manner. Likewise, private lines and various forms of ISDN, are (or can be made to be) always on, as can other formats supported by the telcos. "Negorponte was bullish on ethernet being used by India to access remote or congested areas instead of using fibre optic network." Last time I looked, India was a rather large chunk of real estate. 802.11 may satisfy locales, and could be linked one to the next, but hauling large numbers of bits over vast differences will require fiber or some other backbone medium. I understand that he probably meant ethernet instead of fiber to the individual user's home or office, but even here fiber to the user's local media gateway in the soho or home will likely be the eventual outcome where teledensities can support it. Where Negroponte takes the long view on 4G he also, at the same time, seems to be making light of the long view for fiber, underestimating the persistence of what is sometimes referred to as fiber creep, or fiber's seemingly relentless push deeper into the subscriber network. My take is that fiber to the last 300 feet will probably prove in as the best access platform for neighborhoods and communities of interest that cannot support it all the way. Here I see wireless extending in those instances over those last 200 or 300 feet, where ftth (and a gateway to in-house wireless) does not prove to be economically viable. Btw, I'd like to see some suggested hand-off schemes for [never mind for now how operators are going to make money by] orchestrating 802.11x to PCS and 4G traffic flows. Should prove to be really interesting if anything other than fixed fees for usage are proposed. FAC