And
once or twice to throw the dice
Is
a gentlemanly game
But
he does not win who plays with Sin
In
the Secret House of Shame
Oscar
Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Goal
It
seems that Google’s little experiment to determine what use one would have for
100Mbps speed Broadband Internet as per the article “Google
subsidizing ultrafast Broadband test”, published February 10, 2010
8:58 AM PST, by Stephen Shankland, CNET News -
Deep Tech may be answered the old-fashioned way: just ask the Customer!
At
least that is what Telecom Provider Verizon seems to be thinking,
recently flexing their engineering muscles in August 2010 in a test of its FiOS
(Fiber Optic Service) Network between two (2) servers separated by four hundred
(400) miles that it was capable of delivering speeds in excess of 1GBps as
stated in the article “Verizon demos
1GBps FIOS connection”, published August 16, 2010 2:55 PM PDT by
Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal
Strength.
Then
Triple Play Provider FLOW here
in Jamaica decided to up the ante in response to
Telecom Provider CLARO going
172Mbps LTE (Long Term Evolution) by offering 100Mbps as per my blog article
entitled “LIME vs Digicel
- The Truth About Charlie” and “Digicel vs LIME
- Mortal Kombat over 4G Title” and my most stirring blog article
entitled “CLARO vs FLOW -
Cats and Dogs The Revenge of Kitty Galore”.
Telecom
Provider Verizon, all the
way in the United States of America, must have also caught the “demand” virus
from Triple Play Provider FLOW CEO
Michelle English, ‘cause Telecom Provider Verizon came out of their corner
swinging (possibly to the tune of Rocky?!).
They
announced brashly that they too were going 100Mbps on their FiOS for a pricey
US$149 for a thirty (30) day subscription as stated in the article “Verizon intros
150Mbps Broadband on FiOS”, published November 22, 2010 3:31 PM PST
by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal
Strength.
This
despite initially saying that no such demand existed for such speeds among Customers
in the article above! Guess they must have read my blog article
entitled “Telecom
Providers and 100Mbps - Diamonds are Forever”, published eleven (11)
days prior on Saturday November 11th 2010. Strange indeed!
So
now everyone clearly has caught this “demand” illness from Triple Play
Provider FLOWCEO Michelle English
(what a long title!!) what must we as Customers make of all this grandstanding?
The reason, that being one-upmanship and egos, is clearly driving these speed
bumps by these various Telecom Providers.
All
part of the traditions established long ago among Telecom Providers when it
came to aggressive displays about your Internet Speed capabilities, like male
elk fighting and jousting for the unwitting affections and mating rights to a
Doe.
Yet
still the question remains, which technology is better? I attempted to answer
this question in my blog article
entitled “LTE vs WiMaX 4G
- Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors” and came out swinging in favour of
WiMaX, mainly because its development was based on a suggestion I had made back
in 2002 online to the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
and because it is IEEE – probably the biggest supporter of Open Architecture,
akin to Open Source for IT peeps.
Simply
put, Telecom Provider Digicel and Telecom Provider
Clearwire, both sporting WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d, e) Networks
capable of 10Mbps speeds (120 Mbps if upgraded to WiMaX 2 protocol) are Open
Architecture.
Telecom Provider Digicel has
even entered into Roaming Agreements with Telecom Provider Sprint, with Telecom
Provider Digicel and
Telecom Provider Sprint, an investor in
Telecom Provider Clearwire, a nationwide WiMaX Network.
This
after having signed effectively what is the first Broadband Roaming Agreement
for the Caribbean as it relates to WiMaX modems being allowed to use the
Telecom Provider’s Networks per the article “Digicel, Sprint
enter revenue-share agreement on 4G Roaming”, published Friday
December 10, 2010 by Mark Titus, The Jamaica
Gleaner.
Telecom
Provider LIME and Telecom Provider CLARO do
not need such Broadband Roaming Agreement, as a 3G modem uses a SIM Card, and
as such one merely needs the SIM Card from the Telecom Provider providing the
3G Service as well as to ensure that your modem is compatible with the Host
Network i.e. uses the correct frequency. Open Architecture has its limitations,
but there is company in numbers.
Advantages
abound! Equipment cards such as Power, Processor and Communication Cards are
not only interchangeable among the 4G systems, but because WiMaX equipment
architecture is common, both for the RBS (Remote Base Stations) or Node B’s as
well as for the Switch at the MSC (Mobile Switching Centre) are the same, it
creates a secondary industry of Telecom Equipment Suppliers who can make
replacement cards to replace defective ones.
To
wit, it makes maintenance of the system cheaper and deployments cheaper, as
replacing equipment when it goes bad does not lock you into the specific
Telecom Equipment Suppliers, as many Telecom Equipment Suppliers produce
replacement components that work with your equipment, much as is the case with
computers.
Best
of all, like Open Source in IT, Open Architecture allows the owners of the
WiMaX equipment to make signification modification to the software and
firmware, as opposed to just changing the Switch’s settings as is the case with
GSM Equipment.
Thus
the preference for WiMaX as evidenced by the US$35 million dollar choice of
WiMaX by Guyana’s President Barrat Jagdeo as stated in the article “Guyana to build
WiMaX Network”, published Friday December 10th,
2010, The Jamaica Gleaner. Some
techies, specifically pundits on Telecom
Provider Digicel’s Network,
may state that WiMaX 4GMobile (IEEE 802.16d, e) is slow and LTE is better
as it is faster.
Aside
from the usual arguments about Latency and Traffic on the shared broadband
facility typical of Wireless Broadband, Telecom
Provider Digicel speeds
is also affected by the cost of purchasing T1 to provision a faster service
(you want it, but are you willing to pay for it?) as well as the fact that the
ideal Customers of such service, Business People, are still lukewarm to
Wireless Broadband for business, being as it is perceived to be unsecured and
not reliable as per my blog article
entitled “LIME vs Digicel
- The Truth About Charlie”.
Since
that article, upgrades are ongoing and already noticeable speed stabilization
as well as improved Latency is a result, albeit congestion issues still plague
the Network in the daytime.
Many
will say that LTE (Long Term Evolution) the proprietary baby of the 3GPP, is
faster, but alas, speed is an argument for techies and Data Hogs, nefarious
people intent on downloading and streaming Copyright Infringing content under
the guise of “Fair Usage” complaints.
Performance
and reliability is more my concern, and thus far maximum speeds of 7Mbps,
thanks to recent upgrades to Telecom
Provider Digicel Ericsson
Marconi Radio Network, is satisfactory enough for the typical Residential
Customer or casual Internet user for streaming and Legitimate downloading.
It
is however, a far cry from being useful for Businesses, as even evident
from Telecom Provider Digicel’s advertising for Digicel
4G Broadband, so Telecom Provider Digicel cannot accuse me of
misrepresentation, of which they are technically guilty with regards to calling
themselves “4G” as per my blog article
entitled “Digicel vs LIME
- Mortal Kombat over 4G Title” when the evidence is in their very
advertisements.
Solution:
Fiber Optics for Backhaul replacement of their ageing Microwave Radio Network,
Alternative Energy to power the equipment instead of Power Utility Companies
such as JPS Co (Jamaica Power Service Company Limited) and QoS (Quality of
Service) certification via ISO9001 to soothe Business Customers, fidgety about
their sensitive Data traveling over Wireless.
Be
it LTE or WiMaX, as security, not speed, is the real issue. WiMaX is prone to
signal shadowing due to the 2.5 GHz spectrum typically assigned to WiMaX
services, necessitating that you position your CPE (Customer Premises
Equipment) near to a window for LOS (Line of Sight), also evident from their
advertising.
LTE
has the advantage of being a descendant of 3G and thus can use any GSM Mobile
spectrum from 2100 MHz to as low as 720MHz. 2.5 GHz is too high for Wireless
Broadband; you basically have to have LOS (Line of Sight) for the WiMaX modem
and CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) to work properly.
Effectively
sitting near a window, as the Digicel 4G Broadband Commercials demonstrate and
ACTUALLY occurs in practice as stated in the article “Clear 4G WiMaX:
Beats Crappy Hotel Internet”, published November 22, 2010, 10:45am
PST by Jason Perlow, Tech Broiler, ZDNet.
It
is however, great for a SMS (Short Messaging Service) based Mobile Social
Network such as Brown Dawg as detailed in my blog articles
entitled “Brown Dawg, a
Mobile Social Network based on Mobile phones”, “Brown Dawg and A
So di Ting Set - An API tool for User preferences and avoid backlash”,
“Brown Dawg and I
spy Rewards - Geo-Location rewards system for Mobile Social Networking”
and “Brown Dawg and
Se'et Deh - Behavioural Targeted Marketing Ads”
Throw
into the mix Geo-Location Services using Single Tower Triangulation from GloPos
as per my blog article
entitled “Mobile
Triangulation without GPS - A Solution to Crime under our Noses”.
Donations via my PayPal Account are
acceptable for my above suggestions.
This
as Google can invest in Jamaica, seeing as we have spectrum to spare as per the
article indicating that spectrum is up for sale entitled “Government mulls
new mobile provider”, published Wednesday, November 24, 2010 The Jamaica Observer as well as my blog article
entitled “Google Voice and
Google Nexus One - All's Well that Ends Well”.
Still,
the recent DSO (Digital Switch Over) in the United States of America should
yield useful spectrum that WiMaX backers can lobby for to be assigned to their
services, thus putting them on a level playing field with its sibling
technology Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), expected to benefit from “White” Space
Frequencies as the spectrum crisis looms as per the article “FCC crunches
numbers on Spectrum crisis”, published October 25, 2010 2:37 PM PDT
by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News -
Signal Strength.
Wi-Fi
(IEEE 802.11n) is already destined to become “Super” Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) just
by being able to utilize the “White” Space Frequencies on offer Spectrum
license free as per the dictate of FCC (Federal Communications Commission)
Chairman Julius Genachowski as stated in the article “FCC to open up
vacant TV airwaves for broadband”, published Monday September 13,
12:35 am ET By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo! News
This
is now officially confirmed in the article “FCC officially
frees TV white space spectrum”, published Thursday September 23 2010, CNET News. Hopefully likewise can happen here
in Jamaica as opined in my blog article
entitled “ Broadcasting and
Digital Switch Over - Back to the Future to compete with LIME TV”!
Thus,
assuming Customers do not mind the LOS restrictions, WiMaX 2 (IEEE 802.16m) and
Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) can give LTE from Telecom
Provider CLARO and
100Mbps from Triple Play Provider FLOW a
run for its money, and prove that Open Architecture is feasible in the Telecoms
Sector.
WiMaX
2 (IEEE 802.16m) smartphones, slated to appear on Telecom
Provider Digicel Network,
may not face much competition from Municipal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Networks such
as Wayne Chen and Lees family owned Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1 Tech Service
Limited as per my blog article
entitled “Digicel and
WiMaX 4G Mobile - Barbarians at the Gates”.
Not
only can most WiMaX smartphones double as a Mobile hotspot for up to four (4)
Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) devices, but Telecom
Provider Digicel also
has the option to sell Mi-Fi for WiMaX 2 (IEEE 802.16m) to Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n)
conversion, making the distinction between these siblings meaningless.
Roaming
Agreements would also help mend fences too, should Dekal Wireless and Nubian-1
Tech Service Limited decide to get crazy and encroach on Telecom Provider Digicel’s Voice Networks by
offering Metered Wi-Fi calling or Mesh Network Calling as per my blog article
entitled “Telecom
Providers 4G vs Wi-Fi Calling - Galaxy Rangers” and “Digicel and
WiMaX 4G Mobile - The Great Australian Outback”.
After
all, Telecom Provider Digicel, are you not your Brother's Keeper (1992),
as per the bestselling novel by Patricia McCormick, a must read on
this glorious Sunday December 12th 2010?
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