[IP] more on Sides chosen in Logan WiFi battle

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Glenn Fleishman <glenn@glennf.com>
Date: January 3, 2006 1:21:27 PM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Sides chosen in Logan WiFi battle

Greg Brooks <gregb@west-third.com> wrote:
> While I support the efforts of anyone trying to beat some sense into
> Logan's
> Draconian approach, there are other options..The EV-DO cards
> offered by Sprint and Verizon...

What's of course interesting about that is that cellular operators  
have no right for antenna placement and typically pay recurring fees  
of which the airport gets a piece for antenna placement in airports.  
Concourse Communications, a leading Wi-Fi airport infrastructure  
builder (EWR, JFK, etc.) also installs and runs cellular equipment on  
a neutral basis in airports.

To my knowledge, airports require coordination and operators conform  
to that. It's simpler because the licensed frequencies don't overlap  
geographically and roaming agreements allow cross-network use.

> I understand few people want to spend money on yet another  
> connectivity
> option (unlimited use on Sprint costs $80 a month), but as someone who
> spends more time in airports than out of them, this has been a great
> alternative to spotty (or just expensive) wifi.

Unlimited EVDO use with Verizon and Sprint is just $60 per month with  
a two-year commitment for voice customers of those two carriers.  
However, it's critical to remember that EVDO delivers extremely poor  
upstream speeds. It may offer what the carriers call 300 to 500 Kbps  
(but are typically 200 to 400 Kbps) of downstream bandwidth, but  
upstream is 50 to 100 Kbps. This is unlikely to change because of the  
kinds of services that EVDO is provisioned for that are the real  
moneymakers, like streaming video (if it catches on).

"Spotty (or just expensive) wifi" is not really an accurate  
description of well-designed airport Wi-Fi. Most, but not all,  
airport Wi-Fi operators resell service to aggregators, some of which  
offer unlimited monthly service plans. The trend is towards this, not  
away from it. Thus an $8 to $10 a day rate for airport use becomes  
$21.95 per month with Boingo Wireless, for instance. You just have to  
be traveling through the "right" airports.
--
Glenn Fleishman
seattle . washington
unsolicited pundit . glennf.com
columnist . seattletimes.com/practicalmac
daily wireless networking news . wifinetnews.com


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