[Cu-wireless] Y2K Internet, IEEE 802.16, etc.

[Mark Lenigan]

Greeings,

	Apparently, both of my free email accounts have chosen the same
night to have trouble with their mail servers.  Hence, the need to go with
my CLAM account.
	I do vaguely recall Y2K Internet from that trying pre-broadband
time back in 1999 or 2000.  All that I can remember about the company was
that their website had large font green and red text on a black background
with several grammatical errors and typos.  Needless to say, this "fly by
night" feel, coupled with their cheesy use of the Y2K bandwagon led me to
try other alternatives.   At present, I'm unable to find their webiste,
with the logical conclusion that they hosted it on their own servers,
which are now off-line.
	As for 802.16, it's a technical spec for wireless broadband.  The
press release on /. said that the initial rollout of the MAN
(Metropolitan Area Network, will be in the 10-66 GHz band, which is
somewhat longer than the 2.4 GHz band our 802.11b cards are using.  The
press release did mention eventual plans to extend this spcectrum down to
2 GHz, but I am somewhat skeptical.  2.4 GHz is going to be the CB Radio
of the 21st Century, what with FRS radios, cordless phones, baby monitors
and all manner of wireless networking hackers on it.   802.16 seems to be
aimed primarily at competeing with cable modems and DSL.  While we don't
have access to the actual spec (have to pay $99 to the IEEE for that
favor), tbe presence of the word "Fixed" in the specification title leads
me to believe that this is promulgating something more akin to <A
Href="http://www.prairieinet.net">Prairieinet.net</A> on steroids, rather
than Peter's idea of continuous wireless access while walking around with
his laptop.
	Basically, I don't think that anything contained in the spec would
help us very much; no hardware is available yet, and we lack the
capability to manufacture our own hardware.  802.16 will operate on a
completely different radio band, and there's no guarantee that the
10-66GHz band (isn't that an Amateur Radio band, BTW?) will be operated in
the same unlicensed manner as the 2.4GHz band.  In fact, this is doubtful;
one reson for the special status of the 2.4 GHz band is that it is very
close to the 2.45 GHz band that microwave ovens "broadcast" on.  (Though a
properly manufactured and maintained microwave oven shouldn't be
broadcasting.)

More information regarding 802.16 can be found at:
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2001/0903tech.html
http://www.networkmagazine.com/article/NMG20010823S0005
http://global.ihs.com/news/t2-5.html

best regards,

Mark