----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jo Rhett" <jrh...@netconsonance.com>
> Those of us who feel Internet access is mission critical carry LTE > network devices or make other arrangements. Obviously the growth of > smartphones and tablets is starting to change that equation, but at > the moment none of the Worldcons have done a very good job of > providing useful online interaction so there's no actual use for > onsite data related to the conference itself. Obviously I would love > to see this change. And this is pretty much precisely why I'm hammering the nail; there's *lots* of stuff that could -- and properly should -- be technology assisted at the world's largest gathering of science fiction enthusiasts. > Now, if we want to make this topic relevant to Nanog, the operative > question is the feasability of a data provider putting good wireless > gear near these facilities and selling data access to attendees. For a > useful comparison, the 2010 Worldcon in Melbourne had an expensive > wifi service in the building that kept falling over. A cell provider > across the street put up banners advertising cheap data service, and > put people on the sidewalk in from of the convention selling pay as > you go SIM cards with data service. They made brisk business. *THIS* > is where us network operators can provide good networking service to a > large facility, and pretty much kill the expensive data plans operated > by the facility. Assuming you can get close enough -- which won't be geographically practical for ... oh, wait; you're envisioning 3G, not WLAN. Yeah, I suppose that might work... until you consider that I will, personally, be bringing both laptops, my tablet, and my phone, all of which want to talk to the outside world. I would bet that I'm not all *that* unusual in that, at a Worldcon, based on some attendee conversations I've had at Anticipation and the much less well attended NASfic 10, ReConstruction. A lot of this, too, depends on what the concom negotiated with the property about wifi access already. > Instead of building up and tearing down a network for each convention, > put an LTE tower near the facility and sell to every group that uses > the convention center. Can I get 12000 sessions on a single LTE tower? That's my benchmark for the moment, in the absence of real numbers. :-) Alas, this property has already just rebuilt it's wifi, I'm told. Course, the con is in 2015, so they may rebuild *again* by then. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink j...@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274
