I’ve seen projections in our industry range from “the WISP market is dying, we need to move to fiber” up to “new technologies in RF are going to make fiber the horse and buggy of bandwidth industry”. The truth is that the wireless industry is about to put the hurt on the Wired World and [...]
In this article, Rory Conaway writes about how wireless equipment manufacturers should be pushing the boundaries of technology, not just giving WISPs what WISPs think they need today. Doing so would lower dramatically the cost of deployment and allows WISPs to compete with wireline broadband providers. Every time a new product comes out, there is [...]
Cisco is acquiring Meraki, a private company, for $1.2 billion. Meraki has sold Wi-Fi mesh networking equipment, although more recently it has positioned itself as a cloud-based Wi-Fi management service. Indeed, contrary to what has been said in other articles, it is clear that Cisco is buying Meraki not for its wireless mesh technology, but [...]
Rory Conaway goes into more detail on how to make money as a wireless ISP and reports on the interesting things he saw at the most recent WISPALOOZA, the annual gathering of wireless ISPs, putting an end to the belief that what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas. If you haven’t been to WISPAPALOOZA [...]
Ruckus Wireless has finally priced its IPO: it will sell 8.4 million shares at a price of between $13 to $15 per share. According to Forbes, the company will have 73,685,793 shares outstanding, and at the midpoint of the range, the company would have a market cap of $1.03 billion. In the Forbes article, Eric [...]
We’ve all been to conferences and other types of events where there’s Wi-Fi service, but it is too slow or even unusable. I asked people who set up Wi-Fi networks for crowded events what one must do to ensure that users have a good Wi-Fi experience. One wireless ISP provided the following tips: (1) Plan [...]
Wireless ISPs (WISPS) have more tools available today to improve the performance of wireless networks. There is an optimized product for every single model that is currently deployed, and there are a lot of different models. From grounded RJ-45 connectors to antennas and every component in between, it’s impossible to keep up with everything. Ask [...]
Anybody starting a business knows that funding is the biggest problem. Angel investment and venture capital for first round funding are about as scarce as shade in Phoenix. That is of course, unless your Uncle RUSs or Aunt CAFee open up the government (meaning poor taxpayers) purse strings (lookup OpenRange, Main Street Broadband) to people [...]
Before you start reading this article, let me warn you first that it is longest one I’ve written and the only one in which the manufacturers I talk about see the text before publication. I have my opinions and perceptions as many of you do. However, I also wanted this article to be factually accurate [...]
I participate in various forums that cover the wireless industry. One of the things I enjoy hearing about is that unlicensed frequencies can’t work in certain applications for various reasons. Too much interference, too expensive, and if it’s possible why anyone else hasn’t done it, are common objections and just get my hackles up. The [...]
