Competition vs. Regulation
Occasionally, technology, competition and regulation converge to bring about real change. The innovative character of wireless mesh technology is shaping not only the expansion of broadband access, the regulatory model relating to telecommunications services that seeks to promote competition and how services are delivered and paid for. Wireless mesh shows how technology and innovation, fueled by investment responding to market demand, disrupts the status quo for the benefit of the consumer.
Mesh technology has emerged as a important means to deliver high quality broadband at an affordable costs. That municipal and public safety services are at the forefront demonstrates how the market will move to embrace change if it means quality and affordability. Beset by lack of spectrum, costly proprietary equipment yet in desperate need of quality transmission and reception, the sector looked to the market to find a solution. And the embrace is not driven by some general concept of broadband's benefits, but the delivery higher transmission speeds, the ability to send and receive quality video, photograph, and a range of other information quickly and securely. Broadband delivers improved productivity at less cost than legacy equipment. The services municipal and public safety need are real and the improvements tangible. All this has taken place largely outside the historic regulatory and legislative battlefields of the Congress, the State legislatures, the FCC and state utility commissions.
Read the full commentary here…
The views expressed in this Guest Commentary are those of its author and are not necessarily reflective of Tropos Networks. Tropos Networks, its partners and customers are not responsible for the third-party Guest Commentary content.
Network Visibility: Can Your Business Survive Without It?
As a network operator or service provider, the most essential element to executing on your business model is without a doubt focused on ensuring customer satisfaction. Without satisfied, long-term customers, no business venture has an even marginal chance for success. Well-trained customer support personnel can help resolve problems after they arise, but at what cost? By the time the help call is answered, have you already lost your customer's loyalty?
In order to proactively identify and resolve customer connectivity problems and ensure the most robust subscriber experience, you must have visibility into the performance of your metro-scale wireless network, end-to-end. This means visibility must cover mesh and backhaul performance, and absolutely must include granularity to the client connection performance level. With this type of performance visibility, trouble can be quickly identified and the network appropriately optimized, with the process being completely transparent to the end users. In fact, the City of St. Cloud, Florida, uses these innovative operation and optimization tools to achieve incredible customer satisfaction, and the usage numbers they are seeing proves it. (download the .pdf file here)
Only one metro-scale Wi-Fi solution in the world has this type of intelligence…Tropos MetroMesh. Without it, the satisfaction of your consumers, and the future of your business (and possibly your job) are left completely to chance. Can you afford that type of chance? Click here for more information about Tropos Networks' operation and optimization tools.
Tropos MetroMesh Architecture Best WiMAX / Wireless Broadband Product
This week in London, the Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards were given out to the products and companies that, well, best exemplify innovation in the wireless broadband marketplace. The awards are given in conjunction with The Wireless Event, one of Europe's premier wireless technology tradeshows.
We're happy to announce that the Tropos MetroMesh Architecture took home the hardware for Best WiMAX / Wireless Broadband Product. It's not about mesh, it's not about Wi-Fi, it's about having the most comprehensive end-to-end visibility and reliability in the world. And we're really happy that the folks at the WBI Awards recognized it.
Wi-Fi by the Bay, Courtesy of Earthlink, Google and Tropos Networks
On April 6th, 2006, the City of San Francisco named the partnership of Google and Earthlink as the chosen bid for the city's much-touted SF Tech Connect contract. With the bid award, San Francisco moves one step closer to joining the worldwide ranks of wireless connectivity pioneers. The joint proposal calls for the deployment of a Tropos MetroMesh solution blanketing the entire 49 square miles of San Francisco's majestic landscape, creating a cloud of Wi-Fi similar to San Francisco's famous afternoon fog.
Google will offer a free, advertising sponsored service throughout The City. Earthlink will offer low-cost broadband connections for subscribers requiring greater bandwidth. All of these services will run across a single MetroMesh infrastructure, and will utilize the industry's only carrier-grade operation and optimization tools for service providers, Tropos Insight and Tropos Control. These software tools allow unprecedented visibility into network performance, to the individual subscriber granularity, allowing levels of reliability and customer satisfaction never before seen.
Ron Sege, Mover and Shaker…Or So Says Light Reading!
Tropos Networks President and CEO Ron Sege was recently named one of the telecommunications industry's Top Ten Movers and Shakers by respected news and information source Light Reading. This honor puts our fearless leader in such company as top executives from AT&T, British Telecom, Verizon and Cisco, as well as the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. We at Tropos like to think that Ron moves and shakes a bit more than these other guys, but we're obviously somewhat biased.
As the article puts it, "…Ron Sege didn't invent wireless mesh networks. But he has done a really good job of making a business case for them, using a 'safety first' approach that has paved the way for the municipal WiFi craze sweeping the nation."
Well said, Light Reading! Keep on movin' and shakin'!
Pomona California Breaks Free of Cumbersome Wires
The City of Pomona, California, recently announced an agreement with Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), Cheetah Wireless and Tropos Networks to cover their city with metro-scale Wi-Fi connectivity for residents, businesses and visitors. Pomona is the latest, and by no means the last, city to realize the benefits of universal broadband access. They join a growing list of tech-savvy communities worldwide who are partnering with the private sector to deliver low-cost high-speed mobile Internet access. You're in good company, Pomona.
NBC4, a Southern California NBC network affiliate, produced this comprehensive metro-scale Wi-Fi story ... and all three communities featured are Tropos MetroMesh customers!
Introducing the Tropos Metro Compliant Extensions for Client Devices
At Tropos, deployment experience as taught us that the weakest link in any wireless network is the client device. It's your cell phone that drops calls, not the tower, because it is and always will be the weakest end of that link. The same is true for Wi-Fi, especially with low-power mobile devices. Simple Wi-Fi bridges, purchased off the shelf at your local electronics store, typically lack the intelligence, manageability and power required to deliver predictable and reliable connectivity in all indoor environments. "Why can't I connect?!?" is a phrase no service provider wants to hear.
Well, we're channeling our wealth of knowledge, gleaned from our more than 300 worldwide metro-scale Wi-Fi deployments, to do our part to help change this fact. We recently introduced the Tropos Metro Compliant Extensions (TMCX), a comprehensive spec intended to act as a blueprint of sorts for client device and chipset manufacturers who want to develop products specifically for the metro-scale Wi-Fi market. We've already signed up a number of very excited partners, and they're all feverishly integrating some much-needed intelligence into a wide range of products. One product, the PePLink Surf, is the first to be named TMCX Compliant. Put this device in the hands of your subscribers, similar to a cable or DSL modem, and watch subscriber satisfaction soar.
For more information about the TMCX program, please click here.
Sometimes, we just roll across the coolest new devices with Wi-Fi built in. It's amazing what kind of stuff you can do with open standards. With the rapid acceleration of innovation in this space, I'm sure we'll be seeing some incredibly creative devices in the near future. Here are some that are here now:
This is a K-Byte Zipit, a sub $100 handheld instant messaging device with built-in Wi-Fi. How many times have your children monopolized your desktop machine, sending endless (indecipherable) instant messages to their friends? Drop this device in their hands, connect it to any Wi-Fi signal, and re-claim your home office…and your sanity.
This could possibly be the coolest new voice device so far. With the Netgear SPH101 Skype Wi-Fi phone, you can enjoy free international calling anywhere you have a Wi-Fi connection (like all of Philadelphia, Anaheim, San Francisco, St. Cloud, New Orleans, Pomona, or any of the hundreds of cities that have or will have metro-scale Wi-Fi connectivity in the very near future).
W2i Digital Cities West
Los Angeles, CA
May 24-26
LEIM
Grapevine, TX
June 5-9
MuniWireless Santa Clara, CA
San Francisco, CA
June 19-20
CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment
Los Angeles, CA
September 12-14
Annual IACP Conference
Boston, MA
October 14-18
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