[1st-mile-nm] Subject:Grappa Wireless Internet

Mon Oct 27 11:02:29 PDT 2008

Thanks Steve / Robert

And everyone who has responded directly   It would seem that they are 
using Motorola Canopy 800 system.

In Rio Rancho our company did a bunch of tests with various 802.11 
variants and even up to 802.20 Wi-max ( also FOS laser ) and we found 
some really curious issues with wireless up here in this part of NM such as

1. The faux adobe coatings on the majority of homes had chicken wire 
over the drywall and exterior coating to bond the plaster. This created 
a de facto Faraday cage effect and necessitated the use of a receptor 
booster amplifier as the only means of signal stability ( Best place for 
signal input device was on the roof structure about 4 feet above the 
roof clearing the up stand wall )   Attempts to use these buildings as 
reflectors ( Pool table type )  also fails for similar reasons. ( 
Different building structures perform better but you have to know that 
in advance )

2. Line of site target accuracy issues and echoing was prevalent on all 
wireless systems except FOS with huge loss of signal ( The signal bends 
and warps in atmospheric changes )

3. Weather related issues (  also seasonal ) affected all systems and 
deteriorated service by some 40 - 60%

4. No company at that time had run pre service due diligence ( In all 
seasons ) and none had mapped good / average / poor service areas  ( 
Azulstar only tested the signal to truck mounted antennas with good line 
of site to the service transmitter no more than 1 mile from the central 
site and not to the customers service point - hence they went out of 
business when it did not work )

5. No system could demonstrate good symmetrical performance average was 
( performance quoted to actual = Down 60% --- Up 20 - 30% )

6. Security issues were noted on all systems and interception of both 
down and up was fairly easy with open source products

7. Multiple issues where noted with signal interference between 
especially around electrical power high voltage transmission lines ( 
this rocketed in winter rain and adverse weather conditions and it would 
seem that the magnetic field of the lines shifts in bad weather and even 
sunspot type phases )

All the above basically means that the field crews that support wireless 
must be constantly adjusting the system parameters to make it work an 
expensive proposition.

The added point is that once the issues are understood you can boost the 
service in huge ways ( Including compression bursts and bit torrent type 
support ) especially if you are using the system to monitor the system 
and set realistic goals and know the type of service that the customer 
really wants.

Curious to get comments and further feedback

( : ( : pete

>   
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> Re: [FRIAM] Grappa Wireless Internet
> From:
> Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com>
> Date:
> Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:18:43 -0600
> To:
> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
>
> To:
> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
>
>
> Robert Holmes wrote:
>> Charming people but their internet service sucks. My connection from 
>> them is currently running at about 300K instead of the 1.5M I'm 
>> paying for ($70 per month). 
> I'm on a similar Motorola 600Mhz System run by the San Ildefonso 
> corporation Tewacom.com and have a similar experience (paying 
> $60/month).   My service varies from 0-1.5M with ~.3M typical.   I get 
> almost total dropouts for minutes at a time.  They continue to insist 
> that my service is symmetric but it is rare that I get more than 50% 
> of download on upload.   I use: http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/ most 
> of the time.
>
> If there is something inherently limited in these systems, I'd like to 
> understand it.   I don't like pestering people trying to do their job 
> (TewaCom or Grappa) but I also like getting consistent, expected 
> performance.
>
>> Also because of the location of their radio towers (Santa Fe ski 
>> basin) their service gets even worse during the winter. Last winter 
>> they ended up giving everyone a rebate on one month's fee, though 
>> personally I'd have rather have the up-time than the cash.
> I'm one mile from the TewaCom Xmitter and I get little if any 
> weather-related problems, but do seem to find dropouts and I seem to 
> need to reboot the 600Mhz modem somewhere between several times over a 
> few days to only once in a month.
>> As soon as my contact expires, I'm transfering to Qwest, who have 
>> just started offering DSL in my neighbourhood.
>
> I switched from 1.5M (nominally down) Satellite WildBlue (56k up) 
> which was *never* down but averaged .5M down and .05 up with lots of 
> lag. WildBlue also had monthly quotas (not sliding) which did not 
> support iTunes-class downloads on a regular basis.
>
> Previously I was on dialup which I rarely got higher than 28K 
> connection with effective speeds of maybe 50% of that.
>
> I think Wireless on this scale makes most sense only when there are no 
> other choices.  If DSL or Cable come available, I think they are a 
> better answer.
>
>>
>> Robert
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:10 PM, peter <pete at ideapete.com 
>> <mailto:pete at ideapete.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     http://grappawireless.com/about.html
>>
>>     Anyone in the group have any experience or comments on these guys
>>
>>     ( : ( : pete
>>     -- 
>>
>>     Peter Baston
>>
>>     *IDEAS*
>>
>>     /www.ideapete.com/ <http://www.ideapete.com/>
>>
>>
>>      
>>
>>      
>>
>>
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