The Prepaid Press - February 15, 2008 - (Page 10)

PREPAID WIRELESS February 15 · 2008 - 10 Beachfront Property For Sale from page 1 area, and it becomes easier in urban areas to deal with the topography issues that make cell phone service difficult. This greater range means that each 700-MHz cellular antenna can service a larger footprint, which means fewer cells (interlocking service areas that a “cellular” network is made up of) will be required overall. That should, theoretically, make it $5 billion cheaper, according to some estimates, to build a national wireless network. Auction 73 is broken into a total of five “blocks,” Block C is the most coveted because it contains the most bandwidth - 22MHz in total, broken into two 11MHz pairs. Because it consists of fewer regions, it’s easier to assemble a contiguous, nationwide network. Blocks A, B, and D should see some action, too. Block E is the redheaded stepchild of the bunch with only one 6MHz piece of spectrum to its name. The FCC has ordered that the winner of the Block C auction must commit to creating an openaccess network, meaning any device capable of supporting the appropriate protocols must be allowed to connect and enjoy 700MHz bliss. It has been rumored that one of the bidders, Verizon Wireless, is now lobbying to stop the FCC from mandating the open-access network, stating that it could be misused. The reserve price for Block A is $1.81 billion; Block B, $1.37 billion; Block C, a whopping $4.64 billion; Block D, $1.33 billion, and Block E, $904 million. If, at the end of bidding, any reserves have not been met, a new auction, Auction 76, will automatically be spawned. As of this writing I am not surprised to say the reserve has already been met on Block C. At press time, no word has surfaced to say that anyone has topped this bid or who the winner was. That’s a lot of money for something that is this intangible. Most on-lookers have touted Google to be the major player for this billion dollar beachfront bliss. However, a widely reported suggestion by analyst Blair Levin is that Google’s intention to participate in the FCC auction is a strategy to ensure that the Commission’s minimum price is reached. If bids fall short of $US4.6 billion, a fresh auction may be called without the open access requirement that is mandated in the current auction. If Levin is right, Google wins even if it loses out at the auction. There will be a network that can’t lock out any of Google’s services or prohibit the use of Android phones from Google and its partners in the Open Handset Alliance, and they won’t have to build or maintain the network. It could well be summertime before all is revealed as to who won what licenses in the secretive sealed bid process of this billion dollar FCC auction. But if Google wins the spectrum, it’ll need to decide whether to roll out its own network or find a partner. How the network is used is largely determined by who owns the network, their network properties and protocols. Experts, analysts and, of course, traders all have theories, some are ridiculous and others sublime. But let’s examine one player who seems to really be in “the game,” and yes I’m still talking about Google. Let’s start by reviewing the infrastructure Google has built or has committed to build. First there’s the largest fiber backbone in the world, and the largest and most widely distributed data center build-out in the world. Both of these are far in excess of Google’s current or future requirements. Unless they are also intending to work with a massive 700-MHz wireless network… Imagine a hybrid wireless broadband mesh network using 700-MHz connections for backhaul and some truly mobile links and Wi-Fi for local service. Google has enough experience with WiFi at its Mountain View, CA headquarters to know that it isn’t, by itself, a good solution for wide area networks. The key failing of metro Wi-Fi networks is the backhaul to the Internet backbone. But if Google used its 700 MHz band for that and implemented it as a true mesh network, there would be enough capacity to serve any size network if provided a suitable number of backbone connections. If this Google hybrid network was truly flat it could be maintained entirely within a single address space - like the 80 billion plus IPv6 addresses Google already owns. The sudden existence of a massive IPv6 network would throw other ISPs into a frenzy and drag the rest of the net into the 21st century. Finally, what links all of this together is something I wrote about last month - the Google (Android) handset. This is a network access device that contains 700-MHz and Wi-Fi radios, a tiny Linux-like server, and some flash RAM memory cache. It’s these Google phones that will mesh together, acting as both Wi-Fi access points and 700 MHz mesh backhaul devices. Throw in some local caching, video preloading, and truly local DNS service and suddenly you have a pretty substantial network infrastructure that is not only massive and self-healing - it’s paid for by the customers! All Google (or one of their partners) needs to provide are several thousand points-of-presence (cell towers) to connect the local mesh to the Internet backbone. Google couldn’t do this with Wi-Fi alone, but with 700-MHz meshing and backhaul they could make it work fairly easily and the entire network could be deployed quickly. For those who can’t think of Google as more than a search engine, imagine this also being Google’s key to dominating local and location-based search. Google would overnight become the largest U.S. ISP with direct and very high-performance access to its customers, including those using the new Google Phone or any other phone that supports Wi-Fi connections. The search engine giant would become the biggest and lowest-cost ISP and potentially the biggest and lowest-cost, mobile phone company in the business. When you look at the broad diversity of products and services Google has in its repertoire: Search, Instant Messenger, Maps, Office Applications, Photos and Blog applications to name a few. Bring them all together and examine the link missing between all the different elements it just makes sense. Now you are saying to yourself – that’s all well and good but what does this have to do with prepaid telecommunications and MVNOs? Everything. When the wireless landscape changes (which it will), the face of prepaid, and pay as you go will change with it. I predict that MVNOs will be allowed to utilize the “open-access” network and not be content with merely passing through the products and services offered by the carrier providing the service. MVNOs will be able to write their own user interfaces, applications and provide mash-ups of applications as content for their end users. Product can be formulated to meet the demands of the target market. It’s one thing to offer a mobile phone with voice minutes and some simple apps the carrier or MVNE provided. However, the ability to customize and push new content to the handset has some serious meaning for MVNOs who previously did not have any control over the applications offered to their clients. Now mind you this is all just speculation, and anything is possible, but stay tuned. You may just be paying per packet, rather than minutes, sooner than you think. Bruce Burke is a National Account Manager for Network Liquidators. He can be reached at bburke@nweq.com. http://www.incomm.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Prepaid Press - February 15, 2008

The Prepaid Press - February 2008 Beachfront Property for Sale Cardholder Facing Systems Contents The Retske Report: Getting the Word Out 5 Minutes With Mark Flanagan, CEO of PrepaidWireless.com Regulatory Rundown: Mid-Winter Update 2008 Prepaid Wireless Handsets Consumer’s Union Raps Wireless Industry Prepaid Reviews Launches Canadian Website Maginpins and TúYo Mobile Form Alliance Prepaid Wireless in Brief Boost Mobile Introduces New $1/Day Chat Plan Mobile Voice to Overtake Fixed in Europe Prepaid Wireless Roundup Another Kind of Prepaid Calling Spot Rates VSNL Wins ATLANTIC-ACM Award The Legal Line Calling Cards in Brief Sapotek Partners with DigiLinea Pactolus Goes Live at Cable MSO Low-Income Market Initiatives to Drive Mobile Banking Payments in Brief Monitise Americas Expands Payments Network Charge Anywhere Mobile POS Wins Award Hypercom Introduces System for Small Merchants TIO Networks Announces TIO Prepaid MasterCard NPBCA Makes Leadership Change A Walk Down the Aisle Branding Your Retail Store Retailers Welcome Senate Approval of Stimulus Bill NRF Forecasts 3.5 Percent Growth in Retail Sales Cyphermint Teams With DHL Retail Focus in Brief Our Advertisers Contact Us

The Prepaid Press - February 15, 2008

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