Mobile Wireless Networks Are Incredibly Complex

I'm breaking an editorial rule here, but there is value in "blogging Mike's blog" of Friday regarding three companies who plan on installing fixed wireless access (FWA) WiMAX now, and offering mobile phone service over WiMAX (.16e) when available. These plans oversimplify the extreme complexity of deploying a working mobile wireless network? Towerstream's COO says: "And when 16e (the mobile version) is ready, the WiMAX Forum is trying its hardest to make it a software download, so it should be a simple matter to turn our metropolitan networks into a mobile telephony business overnight." Wow. First of all, have fun waiting 4 years for .16e. Secondly, the Towerstream network, designed with "big stick" antennas covering 10Km and using directional Line-of-sight antennas on rooftops at the customer premise is not "software upgradeable" to mobility, as Towerstream's COO suggests. His mobile network would have as good coverage as the $12 Radio Shack walkie-talkies my mom bought me when I was 8. A mobile network needs to operate in non-line-of-sight configurations, inside buildings, and well below rooftops down at street level. In urban areas such as where Towerstream has networks, cellular carriers use towers with as short range as 750 meters, or even smaller ranges in picocells. And that is what is required to provide service using licensed spectrum, but Towerstream is proposing to used unlicensed. After 20 years of cellular industry development, $ billions upon billions of infrastructure, and thousands of cell towers, dropped calls and coverage holes are still the top complaints of cellular customers. A mobile network is not a trivial task. I don't see how WiMAX ISPs are going be able to provide mobile phone service without: 1) waiting for .16e which is not yet proven, 2) deploying an entirely new network infrastructure with many towers and designed for mobile use, 3) preferably using licensed spectrum, 4) significant advances in battery power for the handsets. Towerstream: you're good at what you do, but stick to your knitting.

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