sauermfj
Active Member
ya ya we know
Must also say that I met TheRodent at that other broadband conference, and he's not such a bad guy. Gave quite a nice presentation on JAWUG.
On this case, he is totally correct. But what can you say? You live, you learn. Ego is the enemy of progress, so I can really honestly say that I take cognisance.
The big thing problem with Wi-Fi is that lot of components were missing when it was launched (that includes hardware implementations, billing, security etc.). Also, the physical distance is limited by the fact that the transmitters were designed for short distance. I know, you can use antennas and boosters to get around this, but there are different ways of dealing with this, some of which 3G uses. In the end, although Wi-Fi uses spectrum better, 3G wins on the full system design versus the signal only spec.
To clarify the death of AirHive: FOCUS.
The way the "market" is divided:
1. Hotspots
2. Municipally owned mesh networks
3. Community mesh networks. This includes the google thing and related drives.
For a company that got R300k to run this off the ground, we moved target from the #3 in month 4 due to lacking profit mechanisms to #2. As for #2, too much politics and issues greater than what we could face - big up to Uninet on this one. We applied for additional funding from the DTI (SPI) to attempt #2, but only got response 12 months later. As for #1, this was a last ditch effort, the market was already saturated and the margins were LOW.
If I were to go back, I would focus on an incremental change that makes a difference however small to the way mesh networking works. To give an example, the original concept centered around mesh networking, but more towards the mobile concept where you have mobile devices such as cellular phones forming the network (Refer to the Wi-Fi discussion above why this could not work).
I have not checked into these things recently, there may have been development, a problem at that time was routing protocols for mobile mesh networks. We did start development on this in C++... eish baas mesh protocol programming is difficaalt. In retrospect, if we only focussed on this area, we could have made it - maybe not in a year, but who knows?
I check into the old postings of AirHive and literally cringe on what needed to be done in order to get something going. But that's how it goes when you are willing to do anything and in a tight spot. Anybody else that ran a small business >>> back me up here, guys. It's almost like wearing a poster begging for money stating that it prevents you from stealing.
As for companies that attempt hotspots, mesh networks and the like: There were a lot of companies going down on this. Don't do it. There really are only 2 choices:
1. community meshes.
2. Big provider networks such as iburst and vodacom 3g.
Until legislation changes to promote better competition, and more competitors to Telkom arrive, we have no other options.
To Henk: Good luck.
From your postings it seems that you have a lot of drive, lots of ideas and have spoken to VC's, Enablis etc.... I also had a few of these meetings.
I've since realised that it is good to get VC, but only if you have proved a sustainable concept and found a market that you can put a number to - even if it is only one customer.
New development is extremely difficult for small companies, and only a handful make it. Can you say dot-com? I would rather say the money is in bigger deals from a smaller amount of companies. Think along tenders, consulting, installation, etc. etc. Going commercial is also difficult for small companies, due to the marketing costs posed.
But who knows? If you have the will to succeed...
======= Frans =========
Must also say that I met TheRodent at that other broadband conference, and he's not such a bad guy. Gave quite a nice presentation on JAWUG.
On this case, he is totally correct. But what can you say? You live, you learn. Ego is the enemy of progress, so I can really honestly say that I take cognisance.
The big thing problem with Wi-Fi is that lot of components were missing when it was launched (that includes hardware implementations, billing, security etc.). Also, the physical distance is limited by the fact that the transmitters were designed for short distance. I know, you can use antennas and boosters to get around this, but there are different ways of dealing with this, some of which 3G uses. In the end, although Wi-Fi uses spectrum better, 3G wins on the full system design versus the signal only spec.
To clarify the death of AirHive: FOCUS.
The way the "market" is divided:
1. Hotspots
2. Municipally owned mesh networks
3. Community mesh networks. This includes the google thing and related drives.
For a company that got R300k to run this off the ground, we moved target from the #3 in month 4 due to lacking profit mechanisms to #2. As for #2, too much politics and issues greater than what we could face - big up to Uninet on this one. We applied for additional funding from the DTI (SPI) to attempt #2, but only got response 12 months later. As for #1, this was a last ditch effort, the market was already saturated and the margins were LOW.
If I were to go back, I would focus on an incremental change that makes a difference however small to the way mesh networking works. To give an example, the original concept centered around mesh networking, but more towards the mobile concept where you have mobile devices such as cellular phones forming the network (Refer to the Wi-Fi discussion above why this could not work).
I have not checked into these things recently, there may have been development, a problem at that time was routing protocols for mobile mesh networks. We did start development on this in C++... eish baas mesh protocol programming is difficaalt. In retrospect, if we only focussed on this area, we could have made it - maybe not in a year, but who knows?
I check into the old postings of AirHive and literally cringe on what needed to be done in order to get something going. But that's how it goes when you are willing to do anything and in a tight spot. Anybody else that ran a small business >>> back me up here, guys. It's almost like wearing a poster begging for money stating that it prevents you from stealing.
As for companies that attempt hotspots, mesh networks and the like: There were a lot of companies going down on this. Don't do it. There really are only 2 choices:
1. community meshes.
2. Big provider networks such as iburst and vodacom 3g.
Until legislation changes to promote better competition, and more competitors to Telkom arrive, we have no other options.
To Henk: Good luck.
From your postings it seems that you have a lot of drive, lots of ideas and have spoken to VC's, Enablis etc.... I also had a few of these meetings.
I've since realised that it is good to get VC, but only if you have proved a sustainable concept and found a market that you can put a number to - even if it is only one customer.
New development is extremely difficult for small companies, and only a handful make it. Can you say dot-com? I would rather say the money is in bigger deals from a smaller amount of companies. Think along tenders, consulting, installation, etc. etc. Going commercial is also difficult for small companies, due to the marketing costs posed.
But who knows? If you have the will to succeed...
======= Frans =========