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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: axial who wrote (21573)	5/24/2007 1:19:43 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Jim, Backhaul is an odd duck. Choosing either WiFi or WiMAX (or FSO or LOS-uWave, for that matter) should be seriously considered in second- and third- tier situations, where there is no fiber to support it. But those wireless bachhaul alternatives should take second chair, in my eyes, to fiber where fiber is available. We're well beyond the stage today when fiber was too scarce to consider, especially in urban and suburban areas where incumbents bring fiber in the form of xDSL-, FTTP-, PON- and HFC- backbones down to field nodes and block distribution points, respectively. There's so much optical capacity in the ground and strung between poles today, and so little of it that is actually needed to accomplish what we're talking about, that it's nothing short of a travesty being committed against common sense that it's not being used. If not for every AP, since that would be a bit much even from a logistical and administrative point of view, since wireless meshing probably does just as well in those situations, then for the upstream core connections serving clusters of APs. Consider, in some areas less than five percent (actually, far less than that, from a purely technical standpoint) of existing optical capacity today is being used for incumbents' content distribution, with the remainder lying fallow and dying on the vine, all because of the stranglehold that the incumbents have on facilities that were bought and paid for by monies obtained primarily from subscribers. In the end, we need wireless, and we need robust backhaul facilities to support it. Hybrid fiber-wireless is the only way to go where it is achievable, IMO. The questions that need answering are, When will the installed base of fiber be freed, and When will it be allowed to happen? No one is saying that the incumbents should give their optical capacity away gratis. On the contrary. Capacity should be priced in accordance with fair market principles, if not on a competitive basis, as well. The problem, however, is that despite it being a desirable commodity that users want and need, the incumbents are withholding it out of fear that it will only serve to cannibalize their bread and butter triple-play services, something that is far easier for them to deal with by creating blockades than through innovation. FAC