Fido Launches New Broadband Wireless Access

bug-eyed monster writes "Fido is launching a new wireless internet service with 'Download at speeds of up to 2.2 Mbps,' in Richmond BC and Cumberland ON. It uses a special modem that plugs into a regular network card. The technology providers' websites, Microcell and Inukshuk, inform us that the service uses Multipoint Communications Systems (radio-based) in the 2500 MHz range. The modem can be used anywhere within Richmond and 'up to 2.5km away from any network base station' (no idea if it can also run on batteries). Of course, this is all torture for me since I live next-door in Vancouver, just out of reach of the network."

When you say Fido

I think FidoNet. And then I get sad.

Re:When you say Fido

Well, I think the original thread should be
modded up since the first thing I thought of
when seeing this article was the "Fidonet", which
existed way prior to the internet. Accessing the
net back then .. when it started was normally via
a 300 baud modem connect to a local collage VAC
system, and then only with a terminal program,
and that would allow you to ftp to sunsite and
such. Off my ramp now, FidoNet was a good thing
even though the phone bills could set you back
hundreds of U.S. dollars a month. (trust me on this!) I've personally known of a few eastern
hubs that would pass mail to europe and have
bills that would be over $1k U.S. a month. (and
people bitch about their $100 a month inet connection...!)

Inukshuk's Logo?

"Now The People Will Know We Were Here."

Torture

This tortures me and I live in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Competition?

I'm curious to know if this is one of those "only option available" or if these guys are providing real competition.
I like the thought of broadband providers competing for my business...

Cantenna?

Of course, this is all torture for me since I live next-door in Vancouver, just out of reach of the network.

If you're desperate and the terrain will cooperate, perhaps build a cantenna(or buy one of those wire-dish highly directional antennas). You might have to open up the modem to get an external antenna installed...although the modem might be leased, making that a no-go option.

Three reasons why this is a Bad IdeaTM

Three problems with this business model:

1) Extra peripheral. When I'm mobile, the last thing I want is to take along yet another notebook thingie. I've already got a wireless minicard; why should I take along a freaking *modem* too?

2. What possible use could anybody have for wireless net access 24x7 in a localised area? If you're at home, you generally have wired internet access (or, if you live in an apartment building, perhaps free wireless ;) If you're at work, you have wired access or access from a WAP. Starbucks and other coffee houses have WAPs. Where else would you need wireless? Which brings me to my last point...

3. The Greater Vancouver area, for one, is saturated with unprotected wifi; why would I ever need to *pay* for access? ;)

Visionary Company

I'm more and more impressed with Fido as time goes on. For those of you who aren't on the West Coast of Canada, Fido's cell plan is something like $45 per month, unlimited local calls. I'm not sure what other cell plans are like in the US, but for Canada, Fido's the first to try anything like that... makes it easy to simply replace your landline with a cell for not much more $$.

Re:Visionary Company

You can switch SIM cards between providers on the same phone? Every time I talk about switching my fido SIM card into a roger's phone, they're always like "you can't do that" and whatnot.

That's what bugs me the most about cellphones, each provider has their own network, and each phone only works on one network. I wish cellphones were more like the internet; it doesn't matter who your ISP is, they all connect to the same internet.

Warning: Bandwidth limited...

This won't satisfy most /. readers. The CAN$40 a monthly fee only covers 20 GB down and 5 GB up. Extra GBs cost CAN$10 each.

Re:Warning: Bandwidth limited...

Warning: Bandwidth limited... This won't satisfy most /. readers. The CAN$40 a monthly fee only covers 20 GB down and 5 GB up. Extra GBs cost CAN$10 each.


Idiot. Alarmist too. It's a traffic limit, not a bandwidth limit. And besides, 20GB is well beyond what 90% of users (of broadband connections) use.

I was just thinking the other day

how cool it would be if everyone had a Wireless Access Point on their rooftop, and formed a p2p wireless mini-internet with no bandwidth restrictions and free for all (minus the cost of the hardware).

No restrictions in dense areas such as urban centers, since you could always route around a full AP, and free as in not having to pay some ISP by becoming you're very own.

I currently have the only AP for at least 4-5 blocks, it would be great if I had geeky neighbors who'd like to give it a try. I'm sure this idea is as old as dirt by now, but it was the first thing I thought of when I read this.

"Up to" - uh oh

"Up to" probably means "when nobody else is using the network". How many people share spectrum with this thing? This is, really, a desktop 3G cellular modem.

Also note that data transfer costs $10/gigabyte after the first 20GB (down) or 5GB (up) in a month.

Personally, I think it should be considered false advertising to advertise "up to" anything. Vendors should have to provide a guaranteed minimum.

Wow...

I saw this -

$20 per month for the first 6 months (regular price: $40 per month)

and thought, damn that's really good for 2.2mbps down wireless internet, then I saw

Monthly transfer: up to 20 GB (download) and 5 GB (upload)

I wouldn't want any kind of internet that gives you limits. I don't know how often I'd use 20GB a month but I'm sure it's very often (lots of bittorent downloading, websites full of flash animations and streaming video, and even games.) If you play UT 2K3 for just 4 hours a day, 25 days a month (that's like coming home from school or work, and playing a few hours) that's around 2 gigs or 1/10th your total bandwidth, for something that uses hardly any bandwidth (around 5-6K/sec and remember there's also hundreds of mutators on like every server and then 10 meg maps.) And how's the upload speed? Latency? I dunno I like the idea of having a wireless ISP and it'd be really cool for a laptop, I don't think this should be uses as your main ISP alone.

Re:Wow...

This is standard for most ISPs. At least, unlike certain others, they are being upfront about the limits. No ISP can afford a 24x7 leech @ $40 monthly.

Other ISPs, who either don't want to kick users, or weren't upfront about their limits will find other methods to "fix" the problem users.

Sounds good to me.

"To enjoy iFido wireless high-speed Internet, all you need is a standard Ethernet card and Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP or Mac/OS/Linux/UNIX."

The above sounds good, but I'm more worried about the small prints:

"The monthly price is for data transfer of up to 20 GB (download) and 5 GB (upload). A charge of $10 applies per additional GB per month. If you didn't opt for a 24-month Fido Agreement, you're eligible for a smaller discount and your service must remain activated for 90 consecutive days."

20GB/5GB should be enough for anyone really using it as a 2nd connection, but considering the price (40$/month after the 6th month), most people will want to use this as their primary connection and better watch out for extra charges (although people using cable might already be used to those transfer limits).

The whole package seems like a nice deal anyway, but I'm kind of worried about the saturation of frequencies these days...

richmond?

why richmond i wonder? the area is built-up with an airport and many commercial buildings...but wouldn't the prime area be in vancouver or burnaby where the residential population density is higher?

The up/down cap

Lots of people are mentioning the 20/5 GB cap for this service and I was wondering if anybody has Telus DSL with their (insanely low, in my oppinion) cap of 5/1 GB cap [mytelus.com]. Do they ever come after you after that? I avoided them like the plague when I came to Alberta.

Verizon

On a side note, Verizon Wireless is rolling out CDMA2000 1X-EVDO throughout the US. Currently, Washington DC and San Diego are online. Service is $80 a month for unlimited. It runs 1-2mbps. Where there is no 1X-EVDO service, it drops back to 1X-RTT (~60kbps).

Fido...

Also has a GPRS network [www.fido.ca] for use with a Novatel Wireless Merlin card. Not quite sure of the speed, but I'd imagine being able to access the net from anywhere would come in handy. Price for the card, and monthly package, is a little steep, though. Plus, like other posters have mentioned wifi access is pretty ubiquitous.

OT:

Anyone else notice the ads for the "ROKU network music player" Quite a nifty looking device, and if I were looking for a network music player, I'd look into it. But you'd have to pry my audiotron from my cold dead hands.

Out of RANGE?!

>> Of course, this is all torture for me since I live next-door in Vancouver, just out of reach of the network."

Two Words...

Names, actually...

Yagi - Uda

Many years ago, these two Nipponese rf engineers designed a nifty, easy to build yourself, high gain antenna, that at the frequencies you need, is quite a small package.

You see them all over, they look like sideways, one dimensional xmas trees. They are made in many sizes, for different frequencies.

They are however, mostly line of sight, with increasing signal attenuation (crappier signal) if the path is blocked by anything, like mountians, buildings, big trees, etc..

Don't give up hope. Experiment a little, and see if you can't connect to their network.

You may even be able to find a techy inside the company, who is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty, and help you out, over time, to see if you can make the connection.

Don't give up, go for it!

This is a bit bothersome...

I am on Fido in Greater Vancouver -- Richmond is a part of the area, and Fido's reception is varying. I go to Richmond on a bi-weekly basis, and it gets a bit irritating that sometimes when I enter certain buildings, my reception drops considerably, sometimes to the point where it is unusable.

Fido (Microcell) uses GSM, which most likely means that this service is GPRS-based, which works on the same waveband if I remember right. They're notorious for offering awesome packages, but pitiful reception in certain areas.

I hope that if they're going to introduce this service that they actually improve the signal quality, because it isn't GSM that is the problem -- Rogers AT&T Wireless uses the same system, but it is the fact that there isn't enough nodes for me to connect to.

I am a very happy Fido customer regardless, but there are times where the reception blackouts do piss me off.

I'm a Fido...

...call me, eh?

Most Canadian-stereotype-admitting-commercials award, 2001. Can anyone from up north shut me down on that one?

should be easily fixed

if you have a friend who is lives on the border of the richmond network area, couldn't you get him to point a wireless antenna (I believe there 15 miles and more success stories, search slashdot) to you, so you could use your friends box as a router to the richmond Fido network?
just the thought..

r.

candian or U.S. Kilobits?

Download at speeds of up to 2.2 Mbps

isn't that around US56K? >:)

i live in Richmond

wow, my home town got ./'ed =b

This is cool news. I switched to Roger AT&T on my cell and i kinda regret it, with the Fido $40 / month unlimited cell plan.

And although the promised wireless internet speed seems to be somewhat less than my current cable broadband, the portability would make many drool. If you can carry the modem around easily with your laptop that is. That is its selling point (the price isn't cheap)

Been there... done that!

For all of you out there that are feeling depressed because you are just out of range of this new service, forget about it.

Look Communications [www.look.ca] is a wireless tv and internet company (well at least they try) in the Toronto and Montreal areas that are currently using this technology to provide their services and it dam near put em out of business.

From past experience, you are not missing anything. The service is based on line of sight so if there is so much as a tree between your antenna and the CN Tower... sorry, no dice.

llid j-

Directional?

These kinds of service are not even close to being new. There is a service here locally that has wireless internet, and they have been operating for the past three years. Why is slashdot covering a press release from an ISP web page anyway? Mod me down, troll, but its been my experience that these pages/ads are 90% hype , 5% marketing, and 5% service agreement. The only thing somewhat interesting about this is that this is non-directional, and the local service in my town just rolled out non-directional modems only six months ago. On second though, not very interesting at all. Move along, nothing to see here.

In belgium

With Tiscali, we got 3Mbit for 36 a month. Tell you I think US and especially UK are being ripped off for broadband...Shame I am leaving.

Expand Coverage

I really wish that instead of focusing funds on new technologies for broadband the teleco companies and whatnot would focus some cash on expanding their existing coverage. I live in the styx more or less about 30 miles from the nearest "metro" location (if you consider Des Moines "metro") and I can't get anything but 56k and normally not even 50k, but hey I could get satellite (Right . . .) not worth the cash really at 60$ a month for no more than a 64k ISDN connection with more or less bursts to 512k. Personally I would think it would be in their best interests to be able to say they have a better coverage zone than woo hoo we have 2.2 MBs wireless. Well I'm done bitching anyone else. . .

Virginia Coverage

If you are in the state of Virginia, USA. There is a 3 MBit wireless host called:

http://www.r-comm.net/

They are friendly fellas and their rates are comparable with DSL pricing. Nice if you are out in the sticks.

argh

I know! It's torture here in Ottawa Too! Why Cumberland as the test site? I'm only a few KM away, but I can't get access to that system.... If you ran it on batteries, you could have 2.2Mb all the way downtown... Not that the 3.3Mb service we get with ADSL is anything to snub your nose at, but you are tethered to a landline...

Fido using NextNet hardware

They are using the NextNet (www.nextnetwireless) hardware - OFDM technology. This seems to be part of the Inukshuk (www.inukshuk.ca) project.

Fido's offering is MMDS

MMDS is Multipoint Microwave Distribution System. The system uses RF spectrum between 2500 and 2700 MHz and if I recall correctly is required by the terms of the license to use only horizontal polarization.

The radio physics behind it are exactly the same as an 802.11b network - line of site required, free space loss, etc are all very similar.

The MAC layer is designed for access rather than wireless lan so it'll act much better than an 802.11b cell - think 802.11b with Karlnet or Alvarion Breeze Access II.

MMDS licenses exist all over the United States and in my particular state some loser telco (now in chapter 11) bought the rights for *one dollar* and never did anything with it.

The equipment is pricey, the odds of it dropping are pretty low because there isn't volume production, and it'll have the same behavior problems as 802.11b minus the dueling operators issues. Don't hold your breath for it coming to your area and it'll be a slave to IP bandwidth economics just like any other distribution medium. You can read up on IP bandwidth economics in my journal since I am not posting that junk again.

Slashdot covers wireless issues the way Seventeen magazine covers boy bands. A teeny, tiny bit of scepticism would go a loooooooong way.

2500 MHz: isn't that 2.5 GHz?

Not unlike Wifi, cordless phones to jam former, microwave ovens to donate parts to make a cordless phone jammer etc.,?
These and a lot of other devices all operate in this band, so expect some interference.

no I did not bother to read the article, so I could be 50-100 MHz off.

Re:Ahh the pain of waiting

No fair my ass. If what you meant by your comment is that those living in areas with a higher population density greater deserve the opportunity to participate in the trials then recognize that the point of this pilot is do the opposite.

Case in point: Richmond is a sprawl of low-density housing comprised of [1-3] floor dwelling units and an almost perfectly flat topography. These qualities allow the first phase of the public trial to expose the benefits and shortcomings of the non-LOS system that iFido uses while not biting off a larger customer base than they can chew.

By doing the inverse (high population density, rolling topography) these companies would have a larger-than-they-can-handle trial customer base (given that anyone within the reach of the signal can sign up) and more urban jungle + rolling hills. That is not a recipe for getting the trial off the ground; indeed it is a recipe for a difficult trial that would most possibly end in failure. Further, if they allowed a limited number of participants, then that is plain bad customer relations for those who attempt to sign up but are rejected because the quota has already been met (customers are fickle creatures)...

Don't like it? Move! :)

It will never happen

There's no way they could provide coverage like this in an area with a lot of high-rises. The people on the far side of the building would have horrible reception. Imagine trying to cover an area like downtown Vancouver or Toronto?

Re:be prepared for busy signals :)

I've been with Fido in the Vancouver area for six months now, and I've never had a system busy signal. I have no idea what they're like elsewhere in Canada, but in the GVRD they're top notch -- way ahead of Rogers, and arguably slightly better (and way less scummy) than Telus.

Reminds me of the well known Vancouver joke....

What river separates China from India?

The Fraser.

Richmond/Delta, get it? Yeah, it's not the best joke and anyone from Vancouver has probably heard it a thousand times...

Whooooosh...there's the sound of evaporating karma.

Re:Ahh the pain of waiting

Actually, Richmond is quite a big urban area!!!