Wireless Blog

TerraWave Solutions, a leading provider of wireless networking solutions required to deploy, manage and secure enterprise-class wireless networks, announced today at Cisco Live! their partnership with Netformx to provide more design options and a complete Wireless LAN solution when using DesignXpert.

Comcast will bundle Clearwire's 4G wireless service , the company said today. Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., will launch the new service in Portland, Ore.

Actiontec Electronics today announced the Q1000 Wireless N VDSL Modem Router, the latest addition to its line of triple play VDSL2/ADSL2+ Universal DSL Wireless Gateways.

Dailywireless has been up and down the last day or so. Our server crashed and we’ve been moving files to a backup host and installing a new server in it’s place.

Sorry about the disruption. We should be back to normal in a day or so.

- Sam Churchill, Founder, Dailywireless.org

Comcast will bundle Clearwire’s 4G wireless service, the company said today.

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., will launch the new service in Portland, Ore., and expand the service to other Comcast cities later in the year, including Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Called High-Speed 2go, Comcast will sell 4G wireless access as part of an Internet bundle. To entice new subscribers, Comcast is offering the new 4G wireless with its 12 Mbps download cable modem service, plus a free 802.11g router for $50 a month for the first 12 months. The data card used for the 4G wireless, which fits into a laptop, costs $99. But subscribers who sign up for the package with a two-year commitment get the data card for free.

Comcast will be bundling the WiMax with cablem modem service for $49.99 per month for the first year. This gives consumers 12 Mbps at home and up to 4 Mbps while on the go. For $69.99 a month, users can get the same services and nationwide 3G access. Existing customers with the “Triple Play” package can get 4G access for an additional $30 a month.

Comcast is selling two different data cards and service plans:

• Comcast High-Speed 2go Metro service uses a 4G-only data card giving customers the fastest wireless service within the 4G metro coverage area. The Metro device operates only in a 4G service footprint.
• Comcast High-Speed 2go Nationwide service delivers the fastest metro 4G service plus coast-to-coast access on Sprint’s national 3G network. The Nationwide device automatically switches between available 4G and 3G networks.

Sprint’s cellular customers currently can ge 3G data for about $60 per month. For about $20 more a month ($80/mo), Sprint also offers access to its 4G Clearwire network.

“We are trying to get those consumers, who may not have chosen Comcast’s broadband services in the past, to see that they can get the best and fastest in-home and wireless service from Comcast. But we are also trying to make sure we can keep the customers we do have from going to a competitor,” said Catherine Avgiris, the company’s senior vice president and general manager of wireless and voice services.

The largest Multiple System Operators in the United States are Comcast, with 24 million video customers and Time Warner Cable with 14.6 million. Both cable operaters plan to offer mobile WiMAX in association with Clear. Cox Communications, the 3rd largest cable operator in the US, with 6.2 million customers, plans to offer wireless cellular service using their own dedicated 700 MHz and AWS frequencies.

In the final quarter of 2008, AT&T U-verse added more than a quarter-million subscribers to exceed the 1 million mark. Verizon, with 1.9 million FiOS video subscribers, is now about the seventh-largest cable operator, with AT&T ranking 10th. Together, they total about 3 million subs vrs the 104 million total of traditional MSOs.

In a separate but related joint venture, SpectrumCo, an AWS bidding consortium with Cox, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, picked up 137 licenses in 2006’s Advanced Wireless Services auction (at 1.7/2.1 GHz). SpectrumCo won a total of 137 AWS licenses for $2.37 billion. Comcast’s share was $1.29 billion, followed by Time Warner Cable’s $632.2 million, and Cox’s $248.3 million. (See SpectrumCo Gets Licenses).

Cox paid $248.3 million for AWS licenses in 2006, and is transferring those licenses out of SpectrumCo and directly to Cox. Separately, they bought 700 MHz spectrum for $304M in 2008.

According to Cox Communications Wireless Vice President Stephen Bye, “Our networks will be using our AWS spectrum initially but we are looking to take advantage of our 700 spectrum. It’s a new band and the technology is still in its infancy but we’ll definitely take advantage of that as the ecosystem evolves around 700 MHz”.

“We’re going to be launching with 3G”, said Bye in an interview with Fierce Wireless. “As we build our network it is with a view to 4G. Our 3G network is there to support what handsets are available today; 4G is still some time out there in the future… and we want to be on a path to get to 4G and minimize that investment to get there.

Cox plans to offer cellphone service as well as wireless broadband access for laptops in its home markets. It will use roaming deals with national wireless providers so users can get service elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Comcast and Time Warner are stuck with their white elephant on AWS through SpectrumCo. Now Comcast and Time Warner’s 2.4B AWS investment seem redundant. They’ve got WiMAX. Maybe they can sell their excess AWS spectrum to AT&T. Mixing AWS, Mobile WiMAX and multiple flavors of cellular (including GSM, CDMA and LTE), would not make sense. But that’s what they’ve got.

Enough Macworld readers have told us that an Apple Mac netbook is the device Apple should be making .

As few as 30 per cent of Canadian cellphone users could be accurately located when calling 911 under an improved system that will be launched next February, a report says.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.,, Jun 29, 2009 -- Market research firm Dell'Oro Group has ranked Meru Networks number two in the worldwide enterprise 802.11n wireless LAN market.

A new report says regulators need to play a stronger role in setting national standards for the handling of 911 emergency calls on mobile phones.

Comcast is getting into the wireless broadband business by bundling Clearwire's 4G wireless service with its existing broadband products.