Posted by Jarmo Paukkunen on Fri, Mar 05, 2010
If you work remotely as much as I do, one of your areas of frustration is probably the situation where you are at a customer's location and need Internet access. Many companies provide guest WiFi but most do not. Wired networks may have firewall settings that stymie connection attempts. Thus, demonstrating software solutions is often reduced to PowerPoint slides rather than demonstrating the live system. In my case, a live demonstration of our hosted business applications platform is the most powerful way to show real-life performance and user experience.
Smartphones like the iPhone are great for consuming content but not really suitable for creating content or doing demonstrations. While I use my iPhone to show integration with our unified communications solution it does not work for software demos. Also, the existing 3G networks are too slow for showing any meaningful near real-time applications.
So I was delighted to find that Comcast is providing a 4G networks across the greater Seattle area, based on the WiMax standard. While Comcast sells the service, it is provided by ClearWire Communications in which Comcast has a significant capital investment. Coverage is limited in much of the country, however network rollouts are continuing. Visit http://www.comcast.com/highspeed2go/#/coverage for the current coverage map.
So how does it work? You subscribe to a plan for a minimum of 12 months. As I work principally in Seattle I chose the Metro2Go plan which costs $30/month plus $49 activation fee. National roaming is available at additional cost. The system falls back to 3G when 4G coverage is unavailable while roaming.
Comcast shipped me a USB device which is about the size of a USB thumb drive. Install the communications software, plug in the USB device and you are live. I have run connection speed tests and the typical speed recorded is 10Mb download, 1Mb upload. This is comparable to DSL speeds.
To determine coverage I placed my laptop on the passenger seat of my car and established an audio connection to one of my colleagues using Office Communicator running on our OCS platform. With a wireless headset I was able to maintain a constant phone conversation at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. I found 2 dead spots on my 9 mile commute, similar to dead spots you find with cell phones.
So far I am absolutely delighted. I have attended several customer sales meetings on their site and so far found only one office where I could not get signal. Phone calls made over the connection are free saving me cell phone minutes. The speed of my laptop is the same or better when compared to being on a WiFi network at the office or at home.
I can imagine that 4G services will be a boon to mobile workers in sales, construction, real estate and many other professions and industries.
True location transparency is here.