Public speaking: MIT CNC -- The Future of Portable Communication

I was invited to be a panelist at the MIT Club of Northern California's Entrepreneurship series "What’s In Your Pocket? The Future of Portable Communication" event. Other panelists were from OQO, Digital Chocolate, NVIDIA, and HP Labs. Julie Ask from JupiterKagen moderated.

My fellow panelist Susie Wee from HP Labs wrote about the event in her blog. She quoted me as expressing some reservations about the viability of WiMAX in the face of a nearly ubiquitous Wi-Fi install base. This is essentially correct, however WiMAX being a somewhat diaphonous term it's important to make distinctions on what use-model I was referring to.

I personally believe that Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) will never happen due primarily to the nearly universal attach rate of Wi-Fi to mobile consumer devices, which severely drives down the potential for widespread adoption of Mobile WiMAX. It's estimated that by late 2009 it will be essentially impossible to purchase a laptop without 802.11, and that most will be 802.11n. This trend likely holds true for handheld devices (PDAs, SmartPhones, etc) if for no other reason than chip manufacturers will simply stop building non-11n parts at some point.

The essential question is; If the installed base technology is viable, and a network exists, then why change? Novarum has done extensive real-world use model system testing, and subsequent analyses in their "Wireless Broadband Rankings" and "Metro Wi-Fi Rankings" show that actual throughput of many municipal Wi-Fi deployments is approximately the promised performance of as-yet-undeployed WiMAX systems. 3G & LTE deployments from cellular carriers are increasing footprints daily and coming up the throughput curve. So why change, and why will anyone invest capital in spectrum, equipment, siting, and deployment of a Mobile WiMAX system that in the end will only be as good as what's already available?

The logistical and financial challenges of deploying wide-area wireless networks are rather severe and (most fortunately for those people trying to get investors to drink the WiMAX Kool-Aid) not well understood by more than the relative handful of people who've actually done such work. Those who don't understand history (anyone remember Metricom's Ricochet network?) are doomed to repeat it.

I believe that Mobile WiMAX might find a niche in non-stationary backhaul i.e. broadband on commuter trains, etc but I don't believe it will ever be the "last yard" connection for mobile devices. Fixed WiMAX has a better chance, especially in rural areas of the US which aren't served easily by broadband. Fixed WiMAX also stands a strong chance of succeeding in developing regions outside the United States.

The Reluctant Webmaster

I've been spending the last few days educating myself on the nuances of website management, on account of being recently elected to Vice President at the Wireless Communications Alliance. The WCA has a "working board" which means I'm doing all this myself. Google AdSense, Google Analytics, XML sitemap generation, etc... I recently swapped out our old DreamWeaver/FrontPage site for a Drupal CMS site, and that's really made all this a LOT easier. If you haven't used a CMS system before and you do site development, especially for dynamic sites which have constantly updating content, I really suggest you consider switching. Drupal is Open Source, widely used, and very powerful. Once you get through the initial setup it's amazingly easy to add features. When I wanted Google Analytics I went and fetched the Drupal module for this and was done in two minutes. Google AdSense setup was also very easy with the Drupal module.

Daylight savings, time wasting

I just got done spending a couple of hours downloading and installing updates to keep my PocketPC's calendar from going nuts when the new daylight savings rule kicks in next week. What a pain. Anyone old enough to have lived through the first DST modification fiasco during the 70's is having flashbacks this week. I recall walking to school in the dark, myself. I understand the reason for doing this, but wonder just how much money we'll save versus how much we'll waste dealing with the technology adjustments. My way cool Yes Zulu watch, which used to auto-adjust for DST changes, doesn't anymore. For $200, I can get new watch guts to fix it. How many hours of electricity savings will I need to offset this?