IP: Re: The Broadband Economy

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 15:17:23 -0800
> Subject: Re: IP: Re: The Broadband Economy
> From: Faisal Jawdat <faisal () faisal com>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
>
> > > This "user pays" theory isn't even discussed enough to be dismissed. 
> > > Neither is 802.11, another technology well-known to this list. Its 
> > > latest iteration, 802.11g, supports speeds to 11 Mbps. There's also an 
> > > adjunct, 802.1x, which with a simple firmware upgrades supports 
> > > authentication and security.
>
>         The latest shipping iteration is 802.11b, wireless ethernet,
>         which supports speeds up to 11 Mbps in theory (in practice I
>         believe it's 7 Mbps max).  This is the protocol which
>         "everyone" is using.  A friend of mine claims that the
>         cost of building out national 802.11b coverage is lower
>         than some of the winning 3G frequency license bids.
>
>         There's an 802.11a spec ("wireless ATM"), which operates in
>         frequencies over 5ghz, and can do 50 to 70 Mbps max.  Chipsets
>         started shipping earlier this year.
>
>         There's another spec, 802.11g, which is a successor to
>         802.11b, and like 802.11b operates in the 2.4 Ghz band.
>         It was originally meant to hit 22 Mbps max, but the
>         latest revision goes to over 50 Mbps and requires an
>         802.11b compatibility mode, which should guarantee
>         adoption if 802.11a does not suddenly take over the
>         world in the year it will take the 802.11g spec to
>         finish being standardized.
>
>         All these speeds are somewhat immaterial for home
>         networking, since even the 802.11b setup can saturate
>         a T1, but they may be relevant if being deployed as
>         the first/last mile.
>
>         Some people in San Francisco put up a pair of good
>         line of sight antennae and were bouncing 802.11b over
>         the San Francisco bay.  Then someone else pointed
>         an antenna from Oakland into the heart of San
>         Francisco and was picking up open office LANs at
>         companies which had not locked down their wireless
>         networks.
>
>         -faisal

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