One of the Old timers at Church (you need a crystal built? He'll build
you a crystal!) worked for Motorola, he was telling me what a
technological achievement it was that they could split that 900MHZ
Frequency into the Call lane and the PTT lane.
We were also Nextel and got switched to the Sprint PTT, which was lousy
at the best of times, I Think we also went to AT&T for a while before
ending up at Verizon. You could also tell when a nextel call or PTT was
about to come in, because the car radio started crackling. I think
Grand Theft Auto 3 or 4 included that before your phone would ring if
you were driving.
There's still lots of Skypilot powered up on light poles in ours, and
adjacent towns. Not sure if they're still talking, but the LED's are on
and blinking.
On 9/24/2024 11:56 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
Ah, yes, Nextel. I had a Nextel phone at one time. I remember Nextel
having 3 big things that customers liked:
- 900 MHz worked everywhere
- lots of dealers in small towns catering to small businesses
- push to talk
In that order of importance.
Sprint bought them, looked at that list, and all they saw was “push to
talk”. Figured they could move everyone to the Sprint network and
Sprint phones if they added a PTT feature (which we never used).
Coverage sucked, so I switched to AT&T. Coverage still lacking.
Switched to Verizon. I’m amazed that T-Mobile is giving Verizon a run
for their money or even exceeding them with rural coverage. Amazing
what you can do by building towers and pricing aggressively. I keep
wondering where DISH 5G is supposed to fit in all this. Who is saying
gee, I wish DISH would offer mobile phone service, I’d jump right on that.
*From:*AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf Of *Cameron Crum
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 24, 2024 11:30 AM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] defunct WISPs
There was also Metricom (Ricochet) in the early 2000s. They used those
General Dynamics Radios with the little helical omnis that stuck off
the bottom and deployed on mostly light poles. I had their service
when I lived in an apartment briefly and needed more than my dialup
connection that operated at 26k at best. I got 128k and thought I was
in heaven, then they shut it down. I also had a Clear Modem I used to
take to the trade shows and typically had faster service than the
crowded crappy wifi they had back 10 years ago. Then they shut that
down. I also switched from Sprint to Nextel after they refused to sell
me a new phone at new customer pricing. At the time my cell phone
bills were over $600/month and they let me walk out of their store in
order to stick to their pricing plans on a phone. Then Sprint bought
Nextel about 6 months later. I guess the take away here is that I'm a
curse to these companies.
On Tue, Sep 24, 2024 at 8:59 AM Bill Prince <part15...@gmail.com> wrote:
McCaw took home 70% of the venture capital.
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
On 9/23/2024 2:21 PM, Robert wrote:
Clearwire, from the same roots as the original cell network in
the NW. Craig McCaw. Clearwire was bumping along until they
"teamed up" with Intel to do the next gen wimax miracle that
was going to be revolutionary. Dropped an IPO with Intel as
the lead investor and hyped the stock for a year and piled on
another few billion in debt and then when all the common
investors lost their ass fire sale the spectrum to spring.
Even Intel got screwed. But not McCaw... 70 percent
penetration through trees?
On 9/23/24 1:47 PM, Forrest Christian (List Account) wrote:
Works 70% of the time?
On Mon, Sep 23, 2024, 11:12 AM <ch...@go-mtc.com> wrote:
Ahhh, yes, that is is. I remembered sprint being
involved somehow.
Wimax 70 miles, 70 mbps and there was a third 70 but
I don’t remember the promise.
Best Regards,
Chuck McCown
McCown Technology Corporation
8401 N Commerce Drive
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/8401+N+Commerce+%0D%0ADrive+Lake+Point,+Utah+84074?entry=gmail&source=g>
Lake Point, Utah 84074
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/8401+N+Commerce+%0D%0ADrive+Lake+Point,+Utah+84074?entry=gmail&source=g>
801-250-9503 Office
435-830-4306 Cell
www mccowntech.com <http://mccowntech.com>
www.microtrench.pro <http://www.microtrench.pro>
www.terabitnetworks.com <http://www.terabitnetworks.com>
*From:*Mike Hammett
*Sent:*Monday, September 23, 2024 11:05 AM
*To:*AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
*Subject:*Re: [AFMUG] defunct WISPs
Clearwire didn't disappear. Sprint bought them in
2012. The WiMax network was shut down in 2015 in favor
of Sprint's LTE network.
-----
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL><https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb><https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions><https://twitter.com/ICSIL>
Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix><https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange><https://twitter.com/mdwestix>
The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/>
<https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp>
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: *dmmoff...@gmail.com
*To: *"AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <af@af.afmug.com>
*Sent: *Monday, September 23, 2024 11:53:04 AM
*Subject: *Re: [AFMUG] defunct WISPs
I recall Clearwire installing Wimax nationwide. At
some point they switched it all to LTE, and then later
they disappeared.
We got a couple of their undeployed cabinets from a
surplus dealer. I didn’t like their switch or their
PDU, but the rectifier and batteries were ok.
-Adam
*From:*AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf Of *Ken
Hohhof
*Sent:* Monday, September 23, 2024 11:27 AM
*To:* 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <af@af.afmug.com>
*Subject:* [AFMUG] defunct WISPs
I remember around the time JAB/Rise was taking off
there was a flurry of other WISPs that took off and
then crashed and burned rather suddenly. I think at
least one of them used WiMAX equipment that was
somewhat popular with apartment dwellers because they
had indoor modems. I also seem to remember equipment
vendors left holding the bag, and surplus equipment
showing up on eBay. I think one of them approached us
about M&A but they were offering stock claiming that
was better than cash because it would go up in value
(yeah, right).
Anyone remember the names of these companies, I’m
drawing a blank. Also any recollection of what went
wrong and lessons learned that might apply to the
current rush to deploy broadand.
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