MuniWireless

The news this week has been somewhat colorful in its reporting of the role that municipalities need to play in the future buildout of fiber infrastructure, wireless infrastructure and so on. At my firm, our analysts decided to take a step back and identify any thought leaders who may well have identified accurately the key stakeholders who should be involved in deciding upon municipal wireless deployments, along with the associated risks and costs.

What may be surprising to us all is…

AT&T says its 3G data network could reach download speeds of 20 Mbps by 2009, according to a report from AppleInsider Wednesday.

The report quoted Ralph de la Vega, AT&T Wireless President and CEO, telling attendees at a Morgan Stanley communications conference that AT&T engineers already have a HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) 3G network running in their labs, at speeds of 7.2 megabits per second (which is about double of AT&T’s wireless network capability today). The report adds that “AT&T…

Cablevision is spending over $300 million to deploy a wireless broadband network over the next two years to provide Wi-Fi service to its customers on the East Coast. The network will cost $100 per subscriber.

Cablevision has been delivering broadband service to the Bronx, Long Island, Westchester county (NY), New Jersey and Connecticut and it plans to extend Wi-Fi coverage to cover outdoor areas, according to this article. It’s not clear how large of an outdoor area they plan to cover.…

Competition in the market for 3G mobile phone services heats up with T-Mobile’s launch of its 3G network in New York City. According to Om Malik, T-Mobile’s latest move doesn’t add up to much in the short term  since the network is limited to NYC and only four handsets can use it (I have no idea why my Nokia N95 can’t use it). However, in the long term, T-Mobile is rolling out 3G in other cities so at some point,…

Skypilot has raised an additional $3.4 million from its current investors, Mobius Ventures and August Capital. The company has raised over $70 million since its inception. Paul Gordon, CEO of Skypilot, says that the company needs this additional round of financing to be profitable.