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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Nextel has surprisingly opened up the trial of their Flarion based Flash OFDM wireless broadband service, and is now offering the service to customers in North Carolina. The wireless service is expected to offer mobile speeds of 1.5Mbps downstream and 375kbps upstream; bandwidth which easily bests nearly all third generation alternatives being offered in the US (which isn't saying much). Via press release, the company has announced several pricing options: $35 per month with a 150MB monthly data cap at reduced speeds, or $75 per month for unlimited downloads at maximum speed.
Their primary competitor, Verizon's EvDO network, promises real-world downstream speeds between 300 and 500kbps, and upstream speeds around 100kbps. Flarion and Nextel argue their service will be considerably faster in real world application, with lower latency (and, we now learn, $5 less a month). You can download Flarion's OFDM whitepaper here (pdf), which claims their technology is capable of offering bursts up to 3Mbps.
Another selling point of Flash OFDM technology is that it offers less than 20 milliseconds of latency and full QoS - nearly competing with landline services. In fact, that's Nextel's intent; executives hoping users will pay the difference in cost for the ability to have home-speed broadband on the go. For those interested, additional technical specifics are available at the Nextel or Flarion websites.
Nextel executives recently noted that a national deployment of the technology will likely cost the company in excess of two billion dollars. At the same time, Verizon is expanding their EvDO network to 100 U.S. cities in their own billion dollar deployment. While the two wireless giants battle for control of the mobile broadband market, their competitors are tinkering with less aggressive approaches while they wait for demand to increase.
Nextel and Verizon's closest competitor will likely be the combined resources of AT&T Wireless and Cingular, who are both deploying GPRS/EDGE networks, and will likely combine resources once Cingular's acquisition moves forward. Puttering along at between 100-130kbps, and with a price-tag of $79.99 a month, the service may not have legs to stand on for very long.
As part of a longstanding deal with Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo, AT&T Wireless did recently announced they'd be supporting UMTS wideband CDMA service in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego and Dallas before the end of the year. That network will offer downstream speeds closer to 384kbps.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Packages are:
- standard (750/200) - $49.99
- deluxe (1000/200) - $64.99
- platinum (1500/375) - $74.99
Definitely not bad for wireless Internet that works like a cellphone. Verizon will have to accelerate the rollout of the 2.4 Mbps EV-DO service to keep up.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Nextel has surprisingly opened up the trial of their Flarion based Flash OFDM wireless broadband service, and is now offering the service to customers in North Carolina. The wireless service is expected to offer mobile speeds of 1.5Mbps downstream and 375kbps upstream; bandwidth which easily bests nearly all third generation alternatives being offered in the US (which isn't saying much). Via press release, the company has announced several pricing options: $35 per month with a 150MB monthly data cap at reduced speeds, or $75 per month for unlimited downloads at maximum speed.
Their primary competitor, Verizon's EvDO network, promises real-world downstream speeds between 300 and 500kbps, and upstream speeds around 100kbps. Flarion and Nextel argue their service will be considerably faster in real world application, with lower latency (and, we now learn, $5 less a month). You can download Flarion's OFDM whitepaper here (pdf), which claims their technology is capable of offering bursts up to 3Mbps.
Another selling point of Flash OFDM technology is that it offers less than 20 milliseconds of latency and full QoS - nearly competing with landline services. In fact, that's Nextel's intent; executives hoping users will pay the difference in cost for the ability to have home-speed broadband on the go. For those interested, additional technical specifics are available at the Nextel or Flarion websites.
Nextel executives recently noted that a national deployment of the technology will likely cost the company in excess of two billion dollars. At the same time, Verizon is expanding their EvDO network to 100 U.S. cities in their own billion dollar deployment. While the two wireless giants battle for control of the mobile broadband market, their competitors are tinkering with less aggressive approaches while they wait for demand to increase.
Nextel and Verizon's closest competitor will likely be the combined resources of AT&T Wireless and Cingular, who are both deploying GPRS/EDGE networks, and will likely combine resources once Cingular's acquisition moves forward. Puttering along at between 100-130kbps, and with a price-tag of $79.99 a month, the service may not have legs to stand on for very long.
As part of a longstanding deal with Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo, AT&T Wireless did recently announced they'd be supporting UMTS wideband CDMA service in San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego and Dallas before the end of the year. That network will offer downstream speeds closer to 384kbps.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Packages are:
- standard (750/200) - $49.99
- deluxe (1000/200) - $64.99
- platinum (1500/375) - $74.99
Definitely not bad for wireless Internet that works like a cellphone. Verizon will have to accelerate the rollout of the 2.4 Mbps EV-DO service to keep up.