Comments for Wi-Fi NOW Africa

Comment on Wi-Fi NOW Awards shortlists announced! by Project Isizwe shortlisted for international WiFi award - htxt.africa

Project Isizwe shortlisted for international WiFi award - htxt.africa — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 15:02:52 +0000

[…] Isizwe has been nominated for the 2016 WiFi NOW Awards in the Affordable Internet Connection category, alongside two other international […]

Comment on Newsletter: Can new tech spark a ‘fixed wireless Renaissance’? by Carl Cagliarini

Carl Cagliarini — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:50:24 +0000

I’m seeing lots of these comments on “Fixed Wireless Renaissance”
The telecom operators have had access to many licence free solutions from Cambium , Infinet and Radwin for several years. The cost to connect people has always significantly lower to use wireless. These companies have continued to sell into these environments. So whats the Renaissance ? There has been no scientific, business case or cultural gap in the knowledge as to the benefits of Wireless ?
It seems that lots of new vendors are talking this up. This portal is about business. Can we see press releases to show hard sales numbers that unequivocally lay foundation to these claims ?
I have sold products that were capable of 1.2 GB full duplex and sold them to operators all over the World. I have also sold thousands of Radios PTP and PTMP in licence free and despite all the chat on what the world needs some of those networks that are 300MB per sector at 90 degree all set on a tower N/S/E/W to cover an 8 mile radius (So 4 x 300 = 1.2GB ) ( reality is 240MB x4=960MB) with ballpark 45 users a sector even with contention that set up which is 4 years old is still under utilised and that is in a major city. That is being used for cellular offload.
Talking with the transmission manager of that carrier I was asking him about traffic increases over the network and the impact of the higher use of Video streaming etc. He stated that on national holidays they see a 20% increase when people are filming and uploading at the site of a parade or an event , but they always as in the past delay a portable base station.
I’m a Wireless guy through and through. It is seriously great to see the passion and the new developments. Im also a guy that gets the call when vendors have burned through their cash and their investors want to see if they have any IP worth buying or to see if the company can resurrect. Hype and wishful thinking isn’t going to grow your business. Its sales. If your public narrative to describe the problem your solving isn’t unique then you’re a “me too”. If your telling the world your chipset can squeeze blood out of a stone or your antenna can reach the spirit of Jimmy Hoffa , nobody cares.

The people who will be making the significant purchases in this game that will keep this industry in business is serious Telco and Government. The Google news while all nice to see, is also a story of Big telco connecting people 300 /1 over Google. Google to compete will either buy a Telco or recruit all the best brains to create one. Those people will buy carrier class solutions on behalf of Google. If you want people to change , you need to be better , cheaper and have an amazing SLA .

There are some seriously clever ideas out there guys and some serious lack of focus too. If you want to sell big , start looking industrial. Stop with the crass narratives. If you’re going to announce something , make it real news.

Comment on Can new tech spark a ‘fixed wireless Renaissance?’ by Carl Cagliarini

Carl Cagliarini — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 09:18:17 +0000

Comment on The EU to subsidise free Wi-Fi in 8,000 European cities by haris

haris — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 07:52:11 +0000

15 000 Euro per city is not enough.

Comment on ‘5G’ is the Donald Trump of telecom by David Theodore

David Theodore — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 18:40:05 +0000

Many thanks, Theodore! I appreciate your feedback and encouragement. There’s definitely more coming. You should like my next post for later this week. 😉

Comment on Newsletter: Why 5G is the Donald Trump of telecom by Can new tech spark a 'fixed wireless Renaissance?' | Wi-Fi Now International

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 10:29:54 +0000

[…] talking about 5G (if you want to know what we think of it read this) – meanwhile, what’s going largely unnoticed are the huge strides of advancement being […]

Comment on ‘5G’ is the Donald Trump of telecom by claushetting

claushetting — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 06:19:06 +0000

Derek – it’s not there is no activity. There’s just no result and the tech media talks as if 5G is a foregone conclusion. I don’t believe it is. It may never happen – at least not on the scale of 4G.
Second: Even the illustrious and now-sacked Ericsson chief Hans Vestberg admitted that he did not know what the use cases for 5G were. I would like to take that a step further: There is no study to my knowledge that can credibly demonstrate that there exists a positive business case for 5G. Because any such study would need to make up hundreds of assumptions on use cases, futuristic devices that don’t exist, etc. etc. In the end, economics will decide the fate of 5G. I think 5G will be one huge embarrassment. Until someone works out it’s reason for existing (even in 2020) and why consumers will want to pay for such a thing – whatever it is – it’s technology for the sake of technology. And that will simply not work.

Comment on ‘5G’ is the Donald Trump of telecom by Derek Kerton

Derek Kerton — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 21:36:34 +0000

Agree with you on the tech. Not on the Trump comment.

You see, “one of our candidates for President” is not a position that merits ANY respect, in and of itself.

A very small minority of voters could, in theory, through the primary process, promote a total idiot as a candidate for President. I am not required to respect that process, or that person.

Now, if such a person were to be elected POTUS by a fair process, and something resembling a majority, then I would have to respect that POTUS, like it or not, because of the weight of the support from my fellow citizens. That person would be your President, and also mine, and the office conveys a position of honor, and demands respect.

But until that day, if David wants to denigrate Trump, then it is simply his free expression that he finds Trump the punchline of a bad joke, not a respectable figure.

Comment on ‘5G’ is the Donald Trump of telecom by Derek Kerton

Derek Kerton — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 21:26:53 +0000

David,

Your arguments are simply false…although I can’t tell if it’s because you’re ill-informed, of if it is because you want to promote Fixed Wireless Broadband at the expense of 5G. Still, it’s worth noting that 5G technologies will be useful for FWB as well as mobile.

I’m not claiming 5G is here or real. Yeah, it’s still really early. Yes, lots of exuberant superlatives are being offered by the PR teams. Well, duh. But that doesn’t prove the negative. Regardless of the PR spin, it remains true that the industry is moving swiftly, and in an organized way, towards 5G in 2020.

Now, on to the proof of your misperception. 5G is seen as nothing because it truly is a strange mixed bag of different solutions to address different usage scenarios. Sorry if it’s confusing. It is. But it’s still real.

You say there is no plan. Here’s RCR Wireless on the plan two major standards bodies, the ITU and the 3GPP, have for 5G through 2020:
http://www.rcrwireless.com/20160719/internet-of-things/5g-standards-process-tag31-tag99

You say there is no plan, but there is a group called the NGMN, whose members are the CTOs of major telecom providers and vendors. These leaders do work that precedes the standards bodies above to specify needs and use cases for each next generation of wireless. They have been hard at work for years now on 5G. I think if anyone clicked the link below, they would see that the claim of “there’s no plan” is false.
https://www.ngmn.org/home.html

Lastly, you yourself report that CEOs “are stepping it up too, talking about “5G trials”, “field tests”. Yeah. That’s what they do when they’re motivated. Carriers choose a piece of the future standard that they feel is important to them, and agree to trial early versions with an appropriate vendor. This displays a level of market demand (the carriers ARE the customers of “g” technologies), and progress. This is how the technology actually is ready for prime time by 2020.

Your knowledge of proprietary fixed wireless technology does not help you here. You should reconsider your analysis.

Comment on ‘5G’ is the Donald Trump of telecom by Theodore (Ted) Teofilak

Theodore (Ted) Teofilak — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 21:15:46 +0000

David,
This was GREAT! Better than great. I love 5G. We need more 5G. Am I right? The only thing better than 5G is 6G, but we’re not ready for that, we’re not ready. And Theodore, My name is Theodore, that’s great. Keep on writing great things, really great things.