Verizon DSL vs Comcast Cable

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark J. Dulcey" <mark at buttery.org>


> Rich Braun wrote:
>
> > In between ISDN and RCN, I used
> > a terrific 27-megabit service rolled out by CAI Wireless.  You can drive
> > through Davis Square along Cutter Ave and still see the chimney-mount
antenna
> > I put up to receive that in 1997.)
>
> We had the CAI Wireless setup here at The Buttery also, but we had a lot
> of troubles with it. They originally installed it in the late fall, and
> everything worked fine until spring when the trees got leaves; then we
> no longer had line of sight and the connection would intermittently go
> out depending on weather. (It would work well enough through dry leaves,
> but not wet ones.) [snip]
> Near the end, CAI did tests of a two-way wireless system that would not
> have required the telephone uplink. The company's financial difficulties
> doomed them before they ever used it for actual customers. (They had
> evidently had a co-marketing deal with the company that was then NYNEX,
> but the phone company pulled out, leaving CAI with a lot of capital
> spent and very few customers to show for it.)
[snip]
> I haven't heard of much activity with MMDS spectrum and equipment
> lately. It would seem to have potential for the right sort of city:
> moderate size, a high point available to put the master antennas, and
> mostly owner-occupied buildings (so they can put up antennas without
> hassles). It wasn't an ideal fit for Boston, because too many potential
> users didn't have line of sight to their central site because of being
> blocked by buildings or hills.

In other words, Phoenix.

NYNEX bowed out after extensive field strength measurements revealed that
less than 25% of suburban homes in the Boston area could receive an
acceptable signal: the original deployment was in Phoenix, which has a much
flatter landscape and a high plateau for the transmitters, not to mention a
very different type of vegetation.

There were trial baloons floated about floating trial baloons with
transmitters on them. The FAA said "Never".

Long story short: not enough long buildings, not enough stories on them;
ergo, no sale.

Bill




> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at blu.org
> http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>