[asterisk-biz] Starting a VOIP Business

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Sun, 2008-02-03 at 18:51 +0000, Alice Stamping wrote:
> On 1 Feb 2008, at 14:33, Andy Davidson wrote:
> 
> > So how did you solve the duplexity issues of Wireless, and
> > what they does to high-demand voip ?
> 
> Andy, most of the wireless providers have bet the farm on being able
> to cover their ears and sing, 'la la la, I can't hear you' when
> customers ask questions about contention and duplex, especially if the
> customer wants to use fairly real-time applications like voice.


its not just wireless providers, most providers in general wont discuss
things like contention rates, especially on peering links, but often
even internal to their network.

With wireless there is more than that, many APs cant handle very large
numbers of people associating with them, and while there may be actual
bandwidth available that doesnt mean much if you cant associate or
constantly get disassociated because the AP just cant handle the load.  

I think to a point there are some that get into the wisp business
without really knowing the number of concurrent associations, whether
its half or full duplex, etc.  It works in the lab with 1 client, it
must work with 1000 :/

It also takes some time, and a bit of money, to add new APs so that the
total number of people associating to one AP is reduced.  So while it
may be fine today, it may not be next month.  And if they do manage to
expand by placing more APs out there, they still have to place them in
the correct spot, if there is a large concentration of people west of
the AP and they put more in on the east and north, that wont really help
much.  So they have to actually do more than just increase density, they
have to increase it in the correct spots. 

And then if its unlicensed wifi, nothing stops neighbors from installing
APs that may cause enough noise on the same channel you cant get the
signal you want.  

I do think there is a future for wireless net everywhere, and generally
think that the future will be most things are effectively data, and you
just get a wireless data adapter.  TV, radio, phone, etc.  There are
already some moves in this direction, just not enough for it to reach
critical mass and begin the downfall of the traditional systems.  But
the cost factor of doing it is enough that in the future I cant see
people holding out forever to keep paying the FCC millions per year for
their single tv station when someone else can get some spectrum for data
and offer many stations.  Replace the FCC with whomever happens to be
the regulatory authority that licenses spectrum in your area.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
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